Mercury is the smallest and innermost planet in the Solar System, located 0.39 astronomical units from the Sun. It has a diameter of 4,880 kilometers and a mass of 3.3 x 10^23 kilograms, making it only slightly larger than Earth's moon. Mercury is a rocky, terrestrial planet with a heavily cratered surface and a thin atmosphere composed mostly of helium and trace amounts of other gases. The planet has a slow rotation and completes three rotations for every two orbits around the sun, resulting in a day that is longer than its year. Mercury has no moons or rings and is the second hottest planet after Venus, with a maximum temperature of 800 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius) on its daytime side due to its proximity to the sun. Mercury was first observed and studied by ancient civilizations, including the Babylonians and Greeks, and has been explored by multiple spacecraft in recent decades, including NASA's MESSENGER mission.

Find it in the Sky

Chose a date & time and view the position of Mercury in the sky on our interactive planetarium.

Time: : UTC

EnglishItaliano Español

Major Bodies »

Mercury

Below the horizon. Rise: 7:30 | Tran: 15:12 | Set: 22:51

Alt: -16.59° Az: 18.43° Direction: North-North-East

Mercury is in the constellation of Cancer, at a distance of 120,210,961.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 08h 49m 52s and the Declination is +17° 19’ 13” (apparent coordinates). The magnitude of Mercury is 0.61. Check out tonight's visibility information of Mercury for tonight.

Finder Charts

The sky charts below show, at different resolutions, the position of Mercury in the sky. Click on each chart to access the interactive star map tool.

Loading the finder chart...

Star map showing the position of Mercury in the constellation of Cancer on F, d Y. Field of view: 50x30 degrees. View interactive star map.

Loading the finder chart...

Star map showing the position of Mercury in the constellation of Cancer on F, d Y. Field of view: 15x9 degrees. View in interactive star map.

The following map uses photographic imagery from the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) to realistically visualize the precise position of Mercury against the stars in the background. The horizontal size of the map measures 60 arcminutes. Click on the image to access a more detailed full-screen view.

Mercury
RA: 08h 48m 26s
Dec: +17° 24’ 57”

Simplified high-resolution deep sky chart showing the current position of Mercury. Field of view: 60 x 40 arcminutes. Go to the dedicated page

Equatorial Coordinates

Apparent

Right Ascension 08h 49m 52s

Declination +17° 19’ 13”

Hour Angle 13h 14m 01s

Sidereal Time 22h 03m 54s

J2000

Right Ascension 08h 48m 26s

Declination +17° 24’ 57”

Additional Information

Constellation Cancer

Magnitude 0.61

Rise and Set Times

The following table lists today's rise, transit and set times of Mercury from Neuwittenbek, Germany (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/Berlin):

Azimuth: 72.7° RISE 7:30

Max altitude: 52.8° TRANSIT 15:12

Azimuth: 287.0° SET 22:51

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page, so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

Distance from Earth

The distance of Mercury from Earth is currently 120,210,961.0 kilometers, equivalent to 0.8035606419 Astronomical Units. Light takes 6m 40.981s to travel from Mercury and arrive to us.

Distance Km 120,210,961.0

Distance AU 0.8035606419

Light Travel Time 6m 40.981s

The following graph shows the distance of Mercury from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance is measured in Astronomical Units and the data is sampled with an interval of 1 day.

Chart of the distance of Mercury from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)
Note: The values in this chart may not be entirely accurate around the time of closest approach for objects passing very close to Earth at high speed (e.g., Near-Earth Objects).

The value of the distance of Mercury from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the live position tracker.

Closest Approach to Earth

In the period between January 1, 1600 and December 30, 2499, the closest approach of Mercury to Earth will happen on Monday 6 June 2416 at a distance of 0.548876 Astronomical Units, or 82,110,662 kilometers:

Date Monday 6 June 2416

Distance Kilometers 82,110,662

Distance AU 0.548876

Note: the values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

Light Curve

The following chart shows the light curve of Mercury, i.e., its apparent magnitude as a function of time. The curve is calculated using the latest ephemerides provided by JPL Horizons. The magnitude data is sampled with the interval of 2 days. Because of this sampling, inaccuracies may occur for objects that have large variations of brightness over a few days. For comets, large discrepancies can arise between the calculated brightness and the observations due to their highly dynamic, and not always precisely predictable, behavior.

Chart of the magnitude of Mercury as a function of time

Physical Properties

The table below lists the known key physical properties of Mercury.

Physical Parameter	Value	Relative to Earth
Diameter	4879.4 km	0.3829
Mass	0.330104 x 10²⁴ kg	0.0553
Density	5.427 gr/cm³	0.9843
Escape Velocity	4.25 km/s	0.3798
Sideral Rotation	1,407.5088 hours	58.8068
Absolute Magnitude	-0.6
Geometric Albedo	0.106

15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of Mercury computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Apparent celestial coordinates are provided.

Date	Right AscensionR.A.	DeclinationDec.	MagnitudeMag	Apparent DiameterDiameter	Constellation
Jun 29 2025	08h 21m 08s	+20° 24’ 14”	0.27	7.3”	Cancer
Jun 30 2025	08h 25m 53s	+19° 58’ 29”	0.31	7.5”	Cancer
Jul 01 2025	08h 30m 26s	+19° 32’ 27”	0.36	7.6”	Cancer
Jul 02 2025	08h 34m 43s	+19° 06’ 17”	0.41	7.7”	Cancer
Jul 03 2025	08h 38m 48s	+18° 40’ 00”	0.45	7.9”	Cancer
Jul 04 2025	08h 42m 38s	+18° 13’ 47”	0.50	8.0”	Cancer
Jul 05 2025	08h 46m 12s	+17° 47’ 41”	0.55	8.2”	Cancer
Jul 06 2025	08h 49m 33s	+17° 21’ 49”	0.60	8.4”	Cancer
Jul 07 2025	08h 52m 39s	+16° 56’ 16”	0.65	8.5”	Cancer
Jul 08 2025	08h 55m 28s	+16° 31’ 12”	0.70	8.7”	Cancer
Jul 09 2025	08h 58m 02s	+16° 06’ 39”	0.76	8.8”	Cancer
Jul 10 2025	09h 00m 20s	+15° 42’ 47”	0.82	9.0”	Cancer
Jul 11 2025	09h 02m 22s	+15° 19’ 40”	0.89	9.2”	Cancer
Jul 12 2025	09h 04m 05s	+14° 57’ 27”	0.96	9.4”	Cancer

Ephemeris Calculator

Compute the position of Mercury for any date and time between January 1, 1600 and December 30, 2499 and display the results on an interactive star map.