# How far away is Mercury right now?

> Mercury's distance from Earth, live. Why the smallest, fastest planet is on average the closest to us, and why its day lasts two of its years.

HTML: https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/planets/mercury

Numbers as of 2026-10-31 03:42 UTC. Live ones keep changing on the HTML page.

Right now Mercury is about 103 million kilometres from Earth, and the gap changes every second. A radio message, moving at the speed of light, needs 5.7 minutes to cross it.

Mercury circles close to the Sun, so its distance from us swings between 77.3 million and 222 million kilometres. It passes nearest to Earth about 3.2 times a year. The next close approach is on 3 November 2026.

- Time until Mercury's next close approach to Earth: 3 d 09 h 44 m 12 s
- Length of a solar day on Mercury (sunrise to sunrise): 176 days
- Mercury's average speed around the Sun: 47.36 km/s
- Average surface temperature of Mercury: 167 °C

## The smallest planet

What is Mercury?

Mercury is the planet nearest the Sun, the first of the eight. Like Earth, it is a world of rock and metal, with solid ground. Its surface is scarred by craters, much like our Moon.

It is the smallest planet of all. Earth is about 2.6 times as wide, and about 18 planets the size of Mercury would fit inside it. Mercury is only about 1.4 times as wide as the Moon.

Mercury has no moons and no rings. It has almost no air either, only a thin haze of atoms knocked off its surface by the Sun.

Inside, Mercury is mostly metal. NASA says its core reaches out to about 85% of the way to the surface. Only Earth is denser.

The Romans named it after their swiftest god. The name fits: no planet moves faster.

## Why the distance keeps changing

The next close approach

Earth and Mercury both circle the Sun, like runners on a track. Mercury has the inside lane, and it is much quicker. It laps Earth about 3.2 times a year.

Each time it overtakes us, Mercury passes between Earth and the Sun. That is when it comes closest. Astronomers call the line-up an inferior conjunction. Then Mercury swings round to the far side of the Sun, up to 222 million kilometres away.

Here is a surprise. Venus comes closer to us than Mercury ever does. But Venus also spends long spells far away, beyond the Sun. Mercury never strays as far. So averaged over time, Mercury is the planet nearest to Earth, at about 1.04 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. It is the nearest, on average, to every other planet too.

The clock on this page counts down to the next close approach, on 3 November 2026.

## A hello that takes minutes

Right now

Radio waves are a kind of light, and nothing travels faster. Even so, a message to Mercury takes time. At today's distance it needs 5.7 minutes to arrive.

The wait shrinks when Mercury passes between us and the Sun, and grows when it slips behind the Sun. Every word to a spacecraft there, and every picture back, crosses that gap.

Few spacecraft have made the trip. Mercury sits so deep in the Sun's pull that, as ESA puts it, an orbiter finds it harder to reach than Saturn. Only one has circled it so far.

That was NASA's MESSENGER, the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. It arrived in March 2011 and worked for four years, until it plunged into the surface on 30 April 2015. Europe and Japan's BepiColombo is arriving now. As of October 2026, ESA expects it at Mercury in December 2026, with regular science from April 2027.

## The fastest planet, and the longest day

Racing round the Sun

Mercury races round the Sun at about 47 kilometres per second on average. That is about 1.6 times as fast as Earth. Since you opened this page, Mercury has travelled [counts up live on the page] kilometres.

So its year is short: one lap takes about 88 Earth days. Its path is oval, so it speeds up near the Sun and slows down far from it.

Its spin is slow: one turn takes 59 days. Put the fast lap and the slow spin together, and the Sun crawls across its sky. From one sunrise to the next takes 176 days, about 2 Mercury years. If you stood on Mercury, you would see two birthdays pass between one sunrise and the next. In some places the Sun even rises, sets again, and rises once more, NASA says.

## Fire and ice

Day and night

From Mercury, the Sun would look more than three times as large as it does from Earth. In the day, the ground can reach 430 °C.

But Mercury has no blanket of air to hold that heat. When night falls, the warmth escapes into space, and the ground can drop to -180 °C. That is a swing of hundreds of degrees between noon and midnight.

Averaged over the whole planet, the temperature is 167 °C, against 15 °C on Earth. Yet Mercury is not the hottest planet. Venus, farther out, is hotter, because its thick air traps the heat.

Strangest of all, there may be ice on Mercury. Deep craters near its poles lie in permanent shadow. NASA says it could be cold enough there to keep water frozen, on the planet nearest the Sun.

## FAQ

### How far away is Mercury right now?

About 103 million kilometres, from the centre of Earth to the centre of Mercury. The number on this page is live. It swings between 77.3 million and 222 million kilometres.

### Is Mercury the closest planet to Earth?

On average, yes. Venus comes nearest at its best, down to 38.2 million kilometres. But averaged over time, Mercury is about 1.04 times the Earth–Sun distance away, and Venus about 1.14. Three physicists showed this in Physics Today in 2019, and NASA's ephemeris agrees.

### When is Mercury closest to Earth next?

On 3 November 2026. It happens about 3.2 times a year, when Mercury passes between Earth and the Sun. Then it is lost in the Sun's glare. Look for it a few weeks before or after, low in the twilight.

### How hot is Mercury?

The day side can reach 430 °C, and the night side can fall to -180 °C. With almost no air, nothing holds the heat or spreads it around.

### How long does it take Mercury to orbit the Sun?

A year on Mercury, one trip round the Sun, lasts about 88 Earth days, the shortest year of any planet. It races round at about 47 kilometres per second, about 1.6 times as fast as Earth.

### How long is a day on Mercury?

From one sunrise to the next takes 176 days. That is longer than Mercury's year of about 88 Earth days.

## Related

- [Planets](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/planets.md)
- [The Sun](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/the-sun.md)
- [Venus](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/planets/venus.md)

Mercury has been passing between us and the Sun every few months for billions of years, always the quickest on the track. Next time you see the Sun set, will you think of the small world racing round it?

## Sources

- Average surface temperature of Earth (Measured, with error): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)
- Average surface temperature of Mercury (Estimated): [NASA NSSDCA: Mercury Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html)
- Average time between Mercury's close approaches to Earth (synodic period) (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Mercury Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html)
- Earth's diameter at the equator (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)
- Earth's speed around the Sun (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)
- Equatorial diameter of Mercury (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Mercury Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html)
- Highest daytime surface temperature on Mercury (Estimated): [NASA Science: Mercury Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/mercury/facts/); [NASA NSSDCA: Mercury Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html)
- Largest possible distance between Earth and Mercury (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Mercury Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html)
- Length of a solar day on Earth (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)
- Length of a solar day on Mercury (sunrise to sunrise) (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Mercury Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html)
- Length of a year on Earth (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)
- Length of a year on Mercury (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Mercury Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html)
- Length of one turn of Mercury (sidereal day) (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Mercury Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html)
- Lowest night-time surface temperature on Mercury (Estimated): [NASA Science: Mercury Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/mercury/facts/)
- Mercury's average distance from Earth, over time (Measured): [Physics Today (AIP): Venus is not Earth's closest neighbor (Stockman, Monroe & Cordner, 12 March 2019)](https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.6.3.20190312a)
- Mercury's average speed around the Sun (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Mercury Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html); [NASA Science: Mercury Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/mercury/facts/)
- Mercury's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Mercury Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html)
- Smallest possible distance between Earth and Mercury (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Mercury Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html)
- Smallest possible distance between Earth and Venus (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Venus Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/venusfact.html)
- Speed of light in a vacuum (Measured): [BIPM: SI defining constants](https://www.bipm.org/en/measurement-units/si-defining-constants)
- The Moon's average distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA: Moon Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/facts/)
- The Moon's mean diameter (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Moon Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/moonfact.html)
- Time until Mercury's next close approach to Earth (Measured): [National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ): ほしぞら情報 2026年11月](https://www.nao.ac.jp/astro/sky/2026/11.html)
- Typical cruising speed of a long-haul airliner (Estimated): [EUROCONTROL: Aircraft Performance Database: B789 (Boeing 787-9)](https://contentzone.eurocontrol.int/aircraftperformance/details.aspx?ICAO=B789); [EUROCONTROL: Aircraft Performance Database: A388 (Airbus A380-800)](https://contentzone.eurocontrol.int/aircraftperformance/details.aspx?ICAO=A388)
- Venus's average distance from Earth, over time (Measured): [Physics Today (AIP): Venus is not Earth's closest neighbor (Stockman, Monroe & Cordner, 12 March 2019)](https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.6.3.20190312a)