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
Stability of the Solar System it. Though they are not technically part of the solar system for the purposes of studying the system's intrinsic stability, they nevertheless can change the system. Unfortunately predicting the potential influences of these extrasolar objects is even more difficult than predicting the influences of objects within the system simply because of the sheer distances involved. Among the known objects with a potential to significantly impact the solar system is the star Gliese 710, which is expected to pass near the system in approximately 1.35 million years. Though the star is not expected to substantially affect the orbits of the major