2023-08-25 10:58:00
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Often when the days are a mess or some people are in a terrible mood, many have blamed Mercury for this situation. Specifically, that the planet is in retrograde mode.
Something that is happening now. This season, Mercury retrograde will take place from August 23 to September 14.
From astrology to science
The idea that planets can influence people’s lives is a fundamental tenet of astrology, a cosmos-based divination practice that has been around for thousands of years in various forms. But the belief that Mercury, in particular, can have some thorny effects it’s a fairly recent developmentaround the 1980s.
Astrology is not a science. But “Mercury retrograde” is indeed an astronomical phenomenon.
Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun
Retrograde motion has captured the attention of humans for millennia. The current astrological interpretation of planetary movements has deep roots in ancient tablets recorded by early astronomers. It was probably first documented by Babylonian astronomers around the 7th century BC..
Those ancient astronomers carved astronomical journals on clay tablets, describing in detail the movement of the planets, including how Mercury seemed to slow down and turn around.
However, in reality, Mercury does not move backwards in its orbit around the Sun. The retrograde motion is an optical illusion caused by the fact that all the planets move at different speeds from each other.
To understand it graphically, Carolyn Ernst, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and vice chair of NASA’s Mercury Exploration Evaluation Group, explains it this way: It’s like driving on a highway with several lanes going in the same direction; If you’re passing a slower-moving car in another lane, it might appear to be moving backwards compared to you, even though you’re both going in the same direction. That’s what happens when Mercury passes Earth.
Foto: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
This colorful view of Mercury was produced using images from the Color Basemap Imaging campaign during the main mission of the MESSENGER space probe.
How to see Mercury retrograde in the sky
Because Mercury orbits the Sun in about 88 days, faster than Earth, it experiences this retrograde motion more often than other planets, about 3-4 times a year. After being in retrograde from August 23 to September 14, the planet will appear to move backwards again from December 13 to January 1, 2024.
Keen skywatchers might be able to see Mercury appear to slow down and then reverse direction during these periods. The trick is to locate Mercury in the sky in relation to the stars or constellations each clear night and make a note of it. As the nights go by, those records will show Mercury appearing to slow in its progression across the starscape and then rloop itself, before continuing.
Not surprisingly, Mercury was named by the Romans in honor of their fast flying messenger, due to the speed with which it moves across the sky. Furthermore, Mercury has one of the most extreme thermal amplitudes of any planet in the solar system. It can reach a blistering 430°C during the day and drop to -180°C at night.
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