Mercury's missing atmosphere due to solar heat
Mercury's extreme proximity to the Sun and weak gravity prevent it from holding onto an atmosphere, resulting in a scorching, barren, and unprotected world with drastic temperature swings.
Mercury, our solar system's innermost planet, lacks a true atmosphere because it's blasted by intense solar heat. Just 58 million kilometers from the Sun, its sunlit side reaches a scorching 430 degrees Celsius, hot enough to vaporize gases and prevent them from forming an atmosphere.
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