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Mercury attains an inferior conjunction (nearest approach to Earth) every 116 Earth days on average, [4] but this interval can range from 105 days to 129 days due to the planet's eccentric orbit. Mercury can come as near as 82,200,000 km (0.549 astronomical units; 51.1 million miles) to Earth, and that is slowly declining: The next approach to ...
Few missions have targeted Mercury because it is very difficult to obtain a satellite orbit around the planet. Mercury orbits the Sun very quickly (between 24.25 miles per second (39.03 km/s) and 30 miles per second (48 km/s)), so spacecraft must be travelling very fast to reach it.
Solar System – the Sun and the objects that orbit it, including 8 planets, the planet closest to the Sun being Mercury Mercury's orbit; Movement of Mercury. Mercury's orbit and rotation; Transit of Mercury; Features of Mercury. Mercury's magnetic field; Atmosphere of Mercury; Mercury's extraterrestrial sky; Geology of Mercury
In 20 cases, Mercury goes into a dangerous orbit and often ends up colliding with Venus or plunging into the Sun. Moving in such a warped orbit, Mercury's gravity is more likely to shake other planets out of their settled paths: In one simulated case, Mercury's perturbations sent Mars heading toward Earth. [12]
Modeling has demonstrated that Mercury was captured into the 3:2 spin–orbit state very early in its history, probably within 10–20 million years after its formation. [ 23 ] The 583.92-day interval between successive close approaches of Venus to Earth is equal to 5.001444 Venusian solar days, making approximately the same face visible from ...
During its stay in Mercury orbit, the probe's instruments yielded significant data, including a characterization of Mercury's magnetic field [20] and the discovery of water ice at the planet's north pole, [21] [22] which had long been suspected on the basis of Earth-based radar data.
If an inferior conjunction occurs as Mercury is passing through its orbital node, the planet can be seen to pass across the disk of the Sun in an event called a transit. Depending on the chord of the transit and the position of the planet Mercury in its orbit, the maximum length of this event is 7 h 50 m. [2]
Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) was the first crewed American orbital spaceflight, which took place on February 20, 1962. [4] Piloted by astronaut John Glenn and operated by NASA as part of Project Mercury, it was the fifth human spaceflight, preceded by Soviet orbital flights Vostok 1 and 2 and American sub-orbital flights Mercury-Redstone 3 and 4.