Observe Earth and Moon Captured in an Image from Mercury: A Whopping 183 Million Kilometers Away!

 While orbiting Mercury, NASA's Messenger spacecraft captured this breathtaking view of Earth and the Moon on May 6, 2010. At the time, the now-decommissioned spacecraft was 183 million kilometers away from Earth, which is further than our average distance from the Sun (150 million kilometers). This was due to Mercury and Earth being at different positions in their orbits around the Sun. The image was snapped by the Wide Angle Camera (WAC) on the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS). Feast your eyes on the incredible photo.

Exploring the Smallest Planet in the Solar System: Mercury

Mercury, the smallest planet in our solar system, is also the closest to the Sun. From its surface, the Sun appears three times larger and up to seven times brighter than it does from Earth. Despite its close proximity to the Sun, Mercury is not the hottest planet; Venus holds that title due to its extreme greenhouse effect. However, Mercury does hold the record for being the fastest, as it orbits the Sun every 88 Earth days. 

With a radius of 2,440 kilometers, Mercury is one-third the size of Earth and slightly larger than our Moon. It orbits the Sun at an average distance of 58 million kilometers, and sunlight takes approximately 3.2 minutes to reach the planet. Mercury's orbit is highly eccentric, ranging from 47 million to 70 million kilometers away from the Sun. 

The planet completes one revolution around the Sun every 88 days, with an average speed of 47 kilometers per second – making it the fastest planet in our solar system. However, Mercury rotates very slowly on its axis, completing one rotation every 59 Earth days. Its axis of rotation is tilted just 2 degrees from the plane of its orbit around the Sun, causing it to rotate nearly upright and thus experience no seasons. Furthermore, the phenomenon of perihelion precession occurs, which is the change in Mercury's perihelion (the point closest to the Sun) of its orbit. This anomaly was explained through Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Source: NASA

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