mercury the planet

     

Mercury (pronounce [ˈmɝkjʊəri] (help·info)) is the innermost and smallest planet in the solar system (since Pluto was re-labelled as a dwarf planet), orbiting the Sun once every 88 days. Mercury is bright when viewed from Earth, ranging from −2.0 to 5.5 in apparent magnitude, but is not easily seen as its greatest angular separation from the Sun (greatest elongation) is only 28.3°: It can only be seen in morning and evening twilight. Comparatively little is known about it; the first of two spacecraft to approach Mercury was Mariner 10 from 1974 to 1975, which mapped only about 45% of the planet’s surface. The second was the MESSENGER spacecraft, which mapped another 30% of the planet during its flyby of January 14, 2008. MESSENGER will make two more passes by Mercury, followed by orbital insertion in 2011, and will survey and map the entire planet.

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