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Showing posts with label Natural Satellite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Natural Satellite. Show all posts

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Natural Satellite of Mercury


This discovery image affords the first evidence Mercury that naturally has a small satellite or moon. Observable as a small bright spot in an image taken yesterday by the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) Wide Angle Camera (WAC), the moon is approximately 70 meters (230 feet) in diameter and orbits at a mean distance Mercury of 14.300 km (8.890 miles). A proposal to name the moon "Caduceus," Carried by the staff after the Roman god Mercury,