Which planet experiences the greatest change between its actual day temperature and actual night temperature?

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The question asks: Which planet experiences the greatest change between its actual day temperature and actual night temperature?

First, recall the key factors that drive large day-night temperature differences: the presence or absence of a substantial atmosphere, and the planet's rotation/orbital dynamics that determine how long a planet stays in sunlight or darkness.

Mercury: This planet has an extremely thin exosphere (virtually no substantial atmosphere) and experiences a very long day relative to its night due to its slow rotation and 3:2 spin–orbit resonance. As a result, the sunlit side heats up drastically, while the night side loses heat quickly, producing the largest diurnal temperature swing among the planets.

Venus: In contrast, Venus has a thick, heat-trapping atmosphere composed mainly of CO2 with high surface pressure. This atmosphere distributes heat efficiently and traps infrared radiation, leading to relatively small day-night temperature differences despite a high average temperature.

Earth: Our planet has a moderate atmosphere and a rotation that causes day-night cycles; the diurnal temperature range is noticeable but not extreme, thanks to atmospheric and oceanic circulation.

Mars: Mars has a thinner atmosphere than Earth, so its day-night temperature swing is larger than Earth’s but still much less extreme than Mercury’s because it has some atmospheric heat retention and conduction, plus dust and surface effects.

Moon (if considered): While not a planet, the Moon shows very large day-night temperature swings due to its lack of atmosphere; however, among the major planets, Mercury experiences the greatest change because its night side has nothing to trap heat and its day side receives intense solar heating for long periods.

In summary, given the combination of almost no atmosphere and an extremely long day length, Mercury exhibits the greatest difference between day and night temperatures among the planets.

Note on missing choices: The provided options list is empty, so we can’t compare alternatives here. However, the reasoning above explains why Mercury is expected to have the largest diurnal temperature variation among planets with their typical atmospheric characteristics and rotation dynamics.

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Which planet experiences the greatest change between its actual day temperature and actual night temperature?

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