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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 ...
This is due to the high eccentricity of Mercury's orbit around the Sun. [1] A 19th century depiction of the apparent size of the Sun as seen from the Solar System's planets (incl. 72 Feronia and the then most outlying known asteroid, here called Maximiliana and now called 65 Cybele).
Mercury orbit (Hermeocentric orbit, named after Hermes): An orbit around the planet Mercury. Venus orbit (Cytherocentric orbit, named after Cytherea, or Aphrodiocentric, after Aphrodite): An orbit around the planet Venus. Jupiter orbit (Zenocentric orbit, named after Zeus, [3] or Latin equivalent Jovicentric): An orbit around the planet Jupiter.
Following the arrival of MESSENGER in orbit in 2011, these six quadrangles were mapped and renamed. [2] The base mosaic used in the new maps was produced with orbital images by the MESSENGER Team and released by NASA’s Planetary Data System on March 8, 2013. This global mosaic includes 100% coverage of Mercury’s surface.
This third force causes the particle's elliptical orbit to precess (cyan orbit) in the direction of its rotation; this effect has been measured in Mercury, Venus and Earth. The yellow dot within the orbits represents the center of attraction, such as the Sun. The orbital precession rate may be derived using this radial effective potential V
Mission: Spacecraft consists of the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM), Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO or Mio). MTM and MPO are built by ESA while the MMO is mostly built by JAXA. Once the MTM delivers the MPO and MMO to Mercury orbit, the two orbiters will have the following objectives: to study Mercury ...
The orbit of the planet Mercury lies interior to that of the Earth, and thus it can come into an inferior conjunction with the Sun. When Mercury is near the node of its orbit, it passes through the orbital plane of the Earth. If an inferior conjunction occurs as Mercury is passing through its orbital node, the planet can be seen to pass across ...
The exploration of Mercury has a minor role in the space interests of the world. It is the least explored inner planet. [1] As of 2015, the Mariner 10 and MESSENGER missions have been the only missions that have made close observations of Mercury. MESSENGER made three flybys before entering orbit around Mercury. [2]