Mercury & Sun

The sidereal day on Mercury is 56 (Earth) days. This is 2/3 of Mercury's sidereal year of 88 (Earth) days. As a result, sunrise to sunrise on Mercury takes 2 Mercury years -- 176 (Earth) days. The movie depicts Mercury (brown) and the Sun (orange). The small white dot on Mercury show a particular location. The movie starts at sunrise (28 seconds). At about 21 seconds, the Sun is directly overhead. At 14 seconds is sunset -- Mercury has traveled once around the Sun. At 0 seconds is sunrise again -- Mercury has traveled twice around the Sun. In this time, Mercury has rotated around its axis three times -- The "spot" on Mercury is at the bottom at the start (28 seconds), at about 18 seconds, at about 9 seconds, and again at 0 seconds.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Mercury
• Day

[damiendude]

thanks!