Mercury, the smallest planet will reach the farthest point from the Earth during an astronomical phenomenon known as "superior conjunction with the Sun," where it will be at 198 million kilometers from the Earth's center.
Qatar Calendar House announced that it will occur at the dawn of Wednesday, September 4, 2019, at 4:27 am Doha local time.
Superior conjunction of Mercury marks Mercury’s transition from the morning sky over the eastern horizon to the evening sky over the western horizon to appear after sunset, QCH astronomy expert Dr Beshir Marzouk said.
During superior conjunction of Mercury, the center of three celestial objects (The Sun, Earth, and Mercury) will be aligned on straight line. The Sun will be in between Mercury and Earth, and so, it will be hidden behind the Sun when observing from Earth's surface. Since it’s opposite side of Earth, it’s totally unobservable for coming several weeks from all the hemispheres.
Dr Marzouk added the superior conjunction of Mercury was occurred on Tuesday, May 31, 2019 and next will occur on Friday, January 10, 2020.
People in the Arabian region will not have a chance to observe Mercury on Wednesday because it will pass very close to the Sun during the phenomenon, But they will have a chance to observe Mercury over western horizon during the last week of September because by that time duration between the settings of Mercury and the Sun will be increased.
There are two types of conjunction occurs in our solar system planets: superior and inferior conjunctions. Superior conjunction occurs for all solar system planets, while inferior conjunction occurs for two planets-- Mercury and Venus-- only, because their orbit around the sun are inside Earth's orbit.
