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
Planet V Sun after entering the ν secular resonance. As an initial test of the Planet V hypothesis, Chambers and Lissauer conducted 36 computer simulations of the Solar System with an additional terrestrial planet. A variety of parameters were used to determine the impacts of Planet V's initial orbit and mass. The mean time at which Planet V was lost was found to increase from 100 Myr to 400 Myr as its initial semi-major axis was increased from 1.8 to 1.9 AU. Results consistent with the current Solar System were most common with a 0.25 Mars mass Planet V. In cases with