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In the 1880s, Giovanni Schiaparelli mapped the planet more accurately, and suggested that Mercury's rotational period was 88 days, the same as its orbital period due to tidal locking. [172] This phenomenon is known as synchronous rotation .
In astronomy, the rotation period or spin period [1] of a celestial object (e.g., star, planet, moon, asteroid) has two definitions. The first one corresponds to the sidereal rotation period (or sidereal day), i.e., the time that the object takes to complete a full rotation around its axis relative to the background stars (inertial space).
A synodic day (or synodic rotation period or solar day) is the period for a celestial object to rotate once in relation to the star it is orbiting, and is the basis of solar time. The synodic day is distinguished from the sidereal day , which is one complete rotation in relation to distant stars [ 1 ] and is the basis of sidereal time.
Mercury – smallest and innermost planet in the Solar System. Its orbital period (about 88 Earth days) is less than any other planet in the Solar System. Seen from Earth, it appears to move around its orbit in about 116 days. It has no known natural satellites. It is named after the Roman deity Mercury, the messenger to the gods.
Here, the ratio of the rotation period of a body to its own orbital period is some simple fraction different from 1:1. A well known case is the rotation of Mercury, which is locked to its own orbit around the Sun in a 3:2 resonance. [2] This results in the rotation speed roughly matching the orbital speed around perihelion. [14]
What Is Mercury retroshade? Learn about Mercury retrograde's shadow period and what it means, as well as the dates of Mercury retroshade on 2022.
Historically, a second obstacle has been that Mercury's period of rotation is a slow 58 Earth days, [13] so that spacecraft flybys are restricted to viewing only a single illuminated hemisphere. Unfortunately, even though Mariner 10 space probe flew past Mercury three times during 1974 and 1975, it observed the same area during each pass.
December 2023 Mercury Retrograde. Mercury, the planet of communication, stations retrograde in Capricorn from December 13, 2023, until January 1, 2024, and it could complicate your end-of-year plans.