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Post by buckleymanor1 on Jul 2, 2011 17:22:04 GMT 1
Like I said, do not confuse the day, ie sunrise to sunrise, with the rotation period, ie the time needed to rotate 360 degrees. The day length, not the rotation time, determines how long the sun shines, and these are different because the planets move round the Sun. Mercury rotates in 59 days, but it orbits the sun in 88 days, so if you were on Mercury you would see the sun rise every 176 days. Venus rotates (backwards) in 243 days and orbits the Sun in 225 days, so the sun rises every 116.75 days. Yes you are right on both counts didn't realise the effect of Venus's backwards rotation. By my reckoning Mercury should be hotter than Venus. It ain't, thanks for taking the trouble to point out my mistakes.
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Post by buckleymanor1 on Aug 31, 2011 0:52:35 GMT 1
Yes I agree that a day on Mercury is longer in Earth days than a day on Venus and this should make Mercury hotter than Venus. What I failed to mention was that Mercury is about 1/16 the mass of Venus and should cool a lot quicker. It can't hold on to heat as much.
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