Mercury (planet) diagram on the right illustrates the effects of the eccentricity, showing Mercury's orbit overlaid with a circular orbit having the same semi-major axis. Mercury's higher velocity when it is near perihelion is clear from the greater distance it covers in each 5-day interval. In the diagram the varying distance of Mercury to the Sun is represented by the size of the planet, which is inversely proportional to Mercury's distance from the Sun. This varying distance to the Sun leads to Mercury's surface being flexed by tidal bulges raised by the Sun that are about 17 times stronger than the Moon's
Third from the Sun called "Earth". Todd VanDerWerff of "The A.V. Club" rated it A and called the twist "justifiably famous". The episode contains an anomaly: the planet revealed as being Earth is described as being in another solar system, "11 million miles" away. The next closest solar system to our sun is actually 25.7 trillion miles away. Third from the Sun "Third from the Sun" is episode 14 of the American television anthology series "The Twilight Zone". It is based on a short story of the same name by Richard Matheson which first appeared in the first issue of the magazine "Galaxy Science