how long to get to mercury from earth
Mariner 10 took 147 days to get from Earth to Mercury. More recently, NASAâs MESSENGER spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004 to study Mercury in orbit. It made its first flyby on January 14th, 2008. Thatâs a total of 1,260 days to get from Earth to Mercury.
At aphelion, half a Mercury year later, it has slowed to 38.7 km/s. A Mercury year is 88 Earth days long, but a Mercury day (the time from noon to noon) takes twice that time. To an observer on Mercury, the Sunâs apparent motion across the sky is due to both the planetâs rotation and its motion along the orbit.