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
Terminus (planet) Terminus (planet) Terminus is a fictional planet at the edge of the Galaxy in Isaac Asimov's "Foundation Series", home of the Foundation (later capital of the Foundation Federation). Terminus is the sole planet orbiting an isolated star. Its nearest inhabited neighbor is Anacreon, 8 parsecs (26 light years) away, and it lies approximately 10,000 parsecs from the capital of the First Galactic Empire, Trantor, near the galactic center. There are almost no visible stars in its sky, only the huge lens of the Milky Way Galaxy. The nearby stars of the Province of Anacreon are known as "The Diamonds", with