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
The empire on which the sun never sets the sun encircles.” Mesopotamian texts contemporary to Sargon of Akkad (c. 2334 – 2279 BC) proclaim that this king ruled “all the lands from sunrise to sunset.” In the early 16th century, the phrase, ""el imperio en el que nunca se pone el sol"" ("the empire on which the sun never sets") originated with a remark made by Fray Francisco de Ugalde to Charles I, who as king of Spain and as Holy Roman Emperor by the name of Charles V, had an empire, which included many territories in Europe, islands in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, cities in North Africa