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If you ’ve never seenMercury , now is your prospect — the next two weeks offer great opportunity to reckon thesolar system ’s inmost satellite .
The " swift major planet " — so named because it orbits the sun in just 88 day — is notoriously hard to see because it ’s always very closelipped tothe Lord’s Day . Most of the time , Mercury is either lost in the sun ’s public eye or on the other side of the sun from our point of view on Earth .
Mercury is about to reach its “greatest elongation west” of the sun.
Because of its proximity to our headliner , Mercury can be learn from Earth only during twilight , when the sun is about to rise or has recently put .
start out next workweek , Mercury climbs to its highest of the twelvemonth as it gain its " greatest extension " — the largest break between the planet and the sun as visit from Earth . These greatest elongations happen every three or four months , before break of the day or after sunset . However , before Mercury attain that point next calendar week , the crescentmoonvisits it , which could make this baffling planet relatively easy to find .
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To spot it , depend east 30 minutes before sunrise on Monday , May 6 . You ’ll have a chance to see a 4%-illuminated crescent moon low on the horizon . A few level north will be Mercury . Although the moon will make it leisurely to locate the petite planet , it will be very low , so it may leaven too difficult to see .
On Thursday , May 9 , Mercury will reach its " greatest elongation west " of the sun and be slimly eminent above due eastern United States , withMarsandSaturnabove it . Although it ’s utmost from the sunrise on May 9 , Mercury will be at its highest above the horizon on Tuesday , May 14 . Using agood duad of stargazing binocularsor a nicesmall telescopewill also help oneself with the view .
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Mercury is the only major planet in the innersolar systemthat a machinelike missionary work has n’t land on . However , it has been imaged , withNASA ’s Mariner 10 photographing it during three flybys in 1974 and 1975 and NASA ’s MESSENGER mapping it from 2008 to 2015 .
BepiColombo , a joint charge from theEuropean Space Agencyand the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency , is on its way to Mercury . When it make the major planet in December 2025 , the ballistic capsule will insert two satellites into area to study the tiny planet ’s craters , geology and composition , as well as its atmosphere and magnetosphere .
