How Long Is A Year On Mercury - Daily Express

NASA capture Mercury crossing in front of the Sun

Mercury has the shortest orbit of the eight planets, circling the Sun from an average distance of about 36 million miles (58 million km). In comparison, the Earth orbits the Sun from about 93 million miles (149.6 million km) and has an orbit of 365 days and six hours. Mercury is also much faster than Earth, flying at speeds of about 105,000 mph (170,000kph), compared to Earth's 66,622mph (107,218 kph).

How long is a year on Mercury?

With a much shorter orbit of the Sun, Mercury has a drastically shorter year when compared to Earth.

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A single year on Mercury lasts only 88 Earth days - less than three Earth months.

The US space agency NASA said: "All of the other planets in our solar system also orbit the Sun.

"So, how long is a year on those planets? Well, it depends on where they are orbiting!

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How long is a year on Mercury? The anwer may surprise you! (Image: NASA)

Mercury has the innermost orbit of the planets (Image: NASA)

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"Planets that orbit closer to the Sun than Earth have shorter years than Earth.

"Planets that orbit farther from the Sun than Earth have longer years than Earth."

Planets closer to the Sun have shorter years for two critical reasons.

Firstly, they have much shorter orbital paths to travel around the Sun.

Secondly, the pull of the Sun's gravity is much stronger and the planets are much faster in their orbits.

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NASA said: "NASA needs to know how other planets orbit the Sun because it helps us travel to those planets!

Planets that orbit closer to the Sun than Earth have shorter years

NASA

"For example, if we want a spacecraft to safely travel to another planet, we have to make sure we know where the planet is in its orbit.

"And we also have to make sure we don't run into any other orbiting objects - like planets or asteroids along the way."

Scientists who send rovers to planets like Mars or Venus, also need to know how the planets move to schedule their launches and landings.

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Mercury: Interesting facts and figures about the small planet (Image: EXPRESS)

Mercury: A single day on Mercury lasts 58 Earth days (Image: NASA)

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How long is a day on Mercury?

If the planet only takes 88 days to orbit the Sun, does it also have much shorter days than Earth?

Surprisingly, a single day on Mercury is much, much longer than you might expect.

A single day on Mercury lasts approximately 58 Earth days, 15 hours and 30 minutes.

In other words, a single day on Mercury lasts 1,408 hours - nearly 59 times longer than on Earth.

According to the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the long days are the result of the Sun's overwhelming gravity.

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The Observatory said: "It is a similar phenomenon that the Earth's Moon always has the same 'face'; the Moon always turns the same side towards the Earth.

"This has a most unusual effect on the length of a Mercurian 'day' as measured from noon to noon."

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If you were to stand on the surface of Mercury, the Sun would appear to move in a very alien fashion.

The Sun would appear to move backwards in the sky before coming to a stop, returning to its original position, and performing a loop.

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