Mercury [viewed through MESSENGER spacecraft’s spectrometer, this data lets scientists know the elements that make up the surface based on the absorption and reflectance of light]

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• Very similar to Earth's moon in how cratered it is. But it's surface is significantly darker, it only reflects a small amount of Sunlight (low albedo).

• Temperature on the surface varies from 100K to almost 700K.

• It takes roughly two Mercury years for the planet to rotate once. This means the same spot on the surface will only see the light of the sun once every two years. One Mercury year is 88 Earth days.

• Mercury has a large iron core, it makes up most of the interior of the planet and creates a strong magnetic field for a planet of its size.

• It has no moons.

• Slightly bigger than Earth's moon

• Visited by satellite Mariner 10—most of our knowledge comes from this one mission. The NASA MESSENGER mission studied Mercury in more recently; it entered orbit around Mercury in March 2011 and studied it until it crashed on the planet's surface in 2015.

• MESSENGER, somewhat surprisingly, revealed that Mercury has water ice at its poles! Although, that water is concentrated in the shadow parts of craters.