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MESSENGER goes into Mercury orbit while Mercury is visible. Going to watch?
Here is a NASA link http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-na...
Hi. I know the spacecraft will not be visible. But I thought some folks might get a kick out of looking at Mercury while the event happened.
2 Answers
- Jason TLv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
You won't be able to watch. Mercury itself appears as a small disc in the sky that can only be seen as such with a telescope. The Messenger probe is far too small to be seen, and will enter an orbit too close to the planet to be separately visibl;e from this distance anyway. So no, I am not going to watch because there will be nothing unusual to see.
- ?Lv 51 decade ago
There will be nothing to see. MESSENGER is millions of miles away - it is not some Earth-orbiting satellite. It will be completely invisible even to the most powerful telescopes.