Our cosmic passport receives its first stamp as we land on the enigmatic world of Mercury. This companion blog post to the podcast episode expands on the astonishing facts about our solar system’s innermost planet and places it within the broader family of celestial bodies.

• 🔥 Extreme Environment: Dive into the shocking details of a world where the sun appears three times larger, and the temperature difference between day and night could vaporize and then shatter steel.
• 🌗 A Day Longer Than a Year: Unpack the peculiar orbital mechanics that mean a single rotation on Mercury takes 59 Earth days, while a trip around the sun takes only 88.
• 🪐 The Rocky Planet Family Portrait: Explore how Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—though born of similar rocky material—evolved into wildly different worlds, from the hellish greenhouse of Venus to the watery oasis of Earth.
• 🛸 Mission Planning for Explorers: Learn why understanding a planet’s composition, magnetic field, and surface conditions is the absolute first step in planning any robotic or human mission into the deep solar system.
• 🗺️ A Preview of Coming Attractions: Get a sneak peek at the gas giants, ice giants, and small celestial bodies that await us on this journey, and why they are crucial to the story of our cosmic neighborhood.