Mercury, our solar system's smallest planet will be visible in our southwestern sky for the better part of the month of December. The best chances to catch Mercury will be during the second week of December, when it will reach the highest point, and it will be at its brightest.
The planet will be visible just after sunset in the early evening sky. On December 18th, the crescent moon will be just above and to the left of Mercury, so if you have never spotted the little red planet, then the moon will provide a great guide post. On each successive night the moon will slip further away.
After a couple of flybys of Mercury, which occurred on January 14, 2008 and October 6, 2008 NASA's Messenger spacecraft is set to enter an more permanent orbit on March 18, 2011. A more recent flyby took place on September 29, 2009.
Messenger is expected to orbit the planet for one earth year, mapping the planet for imagery, topography, and gravity field measurements. There is also a theory that Mercury is shrinking due to its core freezing. The spacecraft will look for evidence of surface buckling.
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