Mercury's Greatest Eastern Elongation Is Coming in January 2021
Sylas Boesten, Unsplash Mercury is hard to spot most nights. This isn't necessarily due to its distance from Earth: The planet orbits close to the sun, which means its light is usually washed out in the evening sky. On January 23, 2021, that won't be the case. That night, the innermost planet of the solar system will reach its greatest eastern elongation, EarthSky reports. What Is Mercury at Greatest Eastern Elongation? An elongation occurs when a planet reaches its farthest distance from the sun in the sky. When the planet falls to west of the sun when viewed from Earth, it's a western elong...
Source: mentalfloss.com