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 the morning following tomorrow, Monday, 12 of Dhu al-Hijjah 1443 AH, corresponding to July 11, 2022 AD, at 1:10 am Doha local time, where Mercury will be at a distance of approximately 46 million km from the center of the sun, a difference of 24 million km from what it was on Saturday, May 28 of this year, knowing that Mercury was then at a distance of approximately 70 million km from the center of the sun , which is the farthest point Mercury reaches from the Sun (the apogee).
Dr. Bashir Marzouk (the astronomer expert at the Qatari Calendar House) said that the residents of the State of Qatar can observe the planet Mercury at dawn / Monday / above the eastern horizon of the sky of the State of Qatar using astronomical devices, from following the sunrise of the planet Mercury at 4:19 in the morning and even before the time of sunrise Sun / Monday / on the sky of Qatar at 4:51 am Doha local time, taking into account the presence in areas far from light and environmental pollutants during monitoring.
Dr. added. Bashir Marzouk said 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 Thursday, corresponding to April 14, 2022 AD, while it will reach it once more on Thursday October 6, 2022 AD.
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 acquires when it is located in The point farthest from the sun is the aphelion point.
It is mentioned that the planet Mercury, like other planets of our solar system, revolves around the sun in an elliptical orbit (ellipse), and the sun is in one of the two foci of this orbit. Far from the sun is called apogee.
It is known that Mercury is one of the rocky planets in our solar system, in addition to being the closest planet to the sun, with an average distance of 58 million kilometers from it. Earth.