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.
Mercury is in the constellation of
Capricornus,
at a distance of 206,752,066.0 kilometers from Earth.
The current Right Ascension is
21h 49m 51s
and the Declination is -15° 13’ 57”
(apparent coordinates).
The magnitude of Mercury is -1.57 (data provided by JPL Horizons).
High precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where Mercury is right now.
Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.
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 206,752,066.0 kilometers,
equivalent to 1.3820521979Astronomical Units.
Light takes
11m 29.651s to travel from Mercury and arrive to us.
206,752,066.0
1.3820521979
11m 29.651s
The following chart shows the distance of Mercury from Earth as a function of time.
In the chart the distance data is measured in Astronomical Units and sampled with
an interval of 1 day.
Chart of the distance of Mercury from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)
The value of the reported distance might be somewhat inaccurate around the times of closest approach for objects passing extremely close to Earth.
The value of the distance of Mercury from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the
Live Position and Data Tracker.
Closest Approach
Between 1 January 1600 and 30 December 2499,
the closest approach of
Mercury to Earth happens on
Mon Jun 6 2416 at a distance of
0.548876 Astronomical Units, or
82,110,662 kilometers:
Mon Jun 6 2416
82,110,662
0.548876
NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed
with a sampling interval of 1 day.
Light Curve
The following chart is the predicted light curve
(visual magnitude as a function of time) of Mercury,
according to the most recent ephemerides data.
Magnitude data is sampled with a 2 days interval and there might be inaccuracies
for objects changing brightness very rapidly during the course of a few days. For comets there could be large discrepancies
between the observed and predicted brightness because of their highly dynamic behaviour.
Chart of the magnitude of Mercury as a function of time
Physical Data
The following shows the known values of the most important physical parameters of Mercury.
Source: JPL Small-Body Database
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.
Physical data. Detailed
information about physical properties of Mercury, such as mass and geometric properties.
15 days ephemerides. Table
showing celestial coordinates and magnitude of Mercury for the past and next 7 days.
Interactive sky chart. An online planetarium application that shows where to locate Mercury in the sky from your location.
Live position tracker. A high precision sky chart that uses real deep sky imagery to help locate Mercury with your telescope or on your astrophotographies.