Mercury (planet) Mercury (planet) Mercury is the smallest and innermost planet in the Solar System. Its orbital period around the Sun of 87.97 days is the shortest of all the planets in the Solar System. It is named after the Roman deity Mercury, the messenger of the gods. Like Venus, Mercury orbits the Sun within Earth's orbit as an "inferior planet", and never exceeds 28° away from the Sun. When viewed from Earth, this proximity to the Sun means the planet can only be seen near the western or eastern horizon during the early evening or early morning. At this time it
Tales from the Planet Earth impatient with sameness, the repetitiveness, the insularity that so often afflicts us." Tales from the Planet Earth Tales from the Planet Earth is a 1986 anthology of science fiction stories edited by Frederik Pohl and Elizabeth Anne Hull It presents 18 stories, sharing a common background developed by Pohl and Hull, by 18 authors from 18 different countries; each author's story is set in his native country. The collection was dedicated for the memory of A. Bertram Chandler and Janusz A. Zajdel. Orson Scott Card described the anthology as "a world tour of science fiction" and reported "it will make