Mercury is a barren planet with virtually no atmosphere
Barren planet is a class of planet with hard surface made mainly of bare rocks and virtually no vegetation.
Habitability and characteristics[]
The life-bearing status on barren planets are fair. Typically barren planets don't contain a lot of surface liquids (such as water), but some of these have abundant liquids underground in aquifers or caves where life can thrive in. Most of those planets have relatively thin atmospheres.
Abundance[]
There are an estimated 233 billion barren planets in our galaxy alone, making it the most abundant surface class of planet other than gas planet. This corresponds that 445‰ of all 524 billion terrestrial planets and 284‰ of all 820 billion planets in our galaxy are barren planets. It is one of five out of eight surface classes of planets with abundances of at least 100 billion.
Speculated barren planets[]
Mercury, Venus and Mars are barren planets in our solar system. There are nearly a hundred speculated barren planets around other stars as of 2015, including two out of three pulsar planets in orbit around PSR B1257+12, a diamond planet around PSR J1719-1438, all three around Kepler-42, and one around HD 10180.
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