About this expedition
What is it like to stand on Mercury?
Walk an imagined cratered plain on Mercury — the smallest planet and the closest to the Sun — in first person. You move and jump in Mercury gravity, 3.7 m/s² and almost exactly the same as Mars, under a black sky where the Sun looks two to three times wider than it does from Earth. Look straight at it and its glare bleeds softly into the black sky.
Mercury has no real atmosphere to trap heat or scatter light, so the sky is black at noon and temperatures swing from about 430 °C in daylight to −180 °C at night. As its iron core cooled, the whole planet shrank and its crust wrinkled into long cliffs called lobate scarps. It also has bright, shallow “hollows” found nowhere else in the Solar System.
Quick facts
- Surface gravity
- 3.7 m/s² — about 38% of Earth’s
- Distance from the Sun
- About 58 million km (0.39 AU)
- Length of a year
- 88 Earth days
- Length of a day
- About 176 Earth days, sunrise to sunrise
- Temperature
- About 430 °C by day, −180 °C at night
- Spacecraft
- Mariner 10 (1974–75), MESSENGER (orbit 2011–2015)
Five discoveries to find
- A mountain born of impact — the central peak of a large crater.
- A block thrown by impact — a sharp-edged ejecta block in the specimen viewer.
- A listener in the glare — a real NASA 3D model of MESSENGER (its placement here is imagined).
- Mercury’s hollows — bright pits that may form as rock loses volatile material.
- A wrinkle from a shrinking world — a lobate scarp raised as the planet contracted.
How to explore
Press Step onto Mercury, then walk with W A S D or the arrow keys, hold Shift to move faster, press Space to jump and drag to look around. On phones and tablets a touch pad appears. Press G to compare the local gravity with Earth’s, P for photo mode, and E to record a discovery in your journal — progress is saved on your own device.
Science and artistic reconstruction
The black sky, dark cratered ground, scarps and hollows are informed by Mariner 10 and MESSENGER imagery. The terrain, props and observation points are procedurally generated art, not survey data.
Keep exploring
关于本次探索
站在水星上是什么感觉？
在一片虚构的陨击平原上以第一人称行走。你将在水星重力下行动——3.7 m/s²，几乎与火星相同——在漆黑的天空下，太阳看起来比地球上大两到三倍。直视太阳时，它的强光会自然地向漆黑的天空中晕开。
水星几乎没有大气，无法保存热量或散射光线，所以正午天空是黑的，温度在白天约 430 °C 与夜间约 −180 °C 之间剧烈波动。随着铁质内核冷却收缩，整颗星球缩小，地壳皱起形成长长的悬崖，称为叶状陡坎。它还有太阳系中独一无二的明亮浅凹陷群。
快速数据
- 表面重力
- 3.7 m/s²，约为地球的 38%
- 与太阳的距离
- 约 5800 万公里（0.39 AU）
- 公转周期
- 88 个地球日
- 昼长
- 约 176 个地球日（从日出到日出）
- 温度
- 白天约 430 °C，夜间约 −180 °C
- 探测器
- 水手 10 号（1974–75 年飞掠）、信使号（2011–2015 年环绕）
五个发现
- 陨击留下的山峰 — 大型陨击坑底部回弹隆起的中央峰。
- 撞击抛出的岩块 — 标本查看器中的棱角碎块。
- 强光中的倾听者 — 信使号的真实 NASA 三维模型（此处位置为想象）。
- 水星的凹陷 — 边缘明亮的浅坑，可能由阳光烘烤出挥发物形成。
- 收缩星球的皱褶 — 随行星收缩形成的长陡坎。
如何探索
点击“踏上水星”，然后用 W A S D 或方向键行走，按住 Shift 加速，按空格键跳跃，拖动鼠标环顾四周。手机和平板上会出现虚拟方向键。按 G 对比重力，按 P 进入拍照模式，按 E 记录发现。
科学与艺术重建
漆黑天空、暗色陨击地表与陡坎、凹陷的描述参考了水手 10 号与信使号的影像。地形、道具和观察点由程序生成，属于艺术创作，并非测量数据。