The Qatari Calendar House announced that the smallest planet of the solar system, “Mercury,” will reach the closest point in its orbit around the sun, “perihelion” during the early hours of Thursday morning.
According to the Qatar News Agency (QNA) today, Monday, Mercury will be approximately 46 million km from the center of the sun, 24 million km different from what it was on Monday, February 28.
Dr. Bashir Marzouk, “the astronomer expert at the Qatari Calendar House, stated that the residents of the State of Qatar can observe the planet Mercury next Thursday evening, above the western horizon of the sky of the State of Qatar using astronomical devices, after sunset on Thursday at 5.56 pm Doha local time and even before the date The sunset of Mercury in the sky of Qatar at 6:52 pm, taking into account the presence in areas far from light and environmental pollutants during monitoring.
Astronomical studies indicate that the significant change in the distance between the location of Mercury and the sun when Mercury reaches the apogee and perihelion points, makes the surface of Mercury gain a double amount of solar energy when it is located at the closest point to the sun “perihelion” compared to the amount of solar energy that Mercury gains when it falls At the farthest point from the sun is the aphelion point.
Marzouk pointed out that the planet Mercury reaches the closest point in its orbit around the sun once every 88 days, “which is the period during which Mercury completes a complete revolution around the sun,” as it reached the closest point on January 16, while it will reach it again on Monday 11th July next.