Hate to burst your bubble, but Mercury does rotate on its axis with respect to the Sun. It has a rotational period of 176 earth-days. This combined with it’s orbital period causes it to have an unusual day!?! From a person’s aspect standing on Mercury’s surface, the Sun would in the ‘east’ then briefly set in the ‘east’. The Sun would then cross the sky and set in the ‘west’, it would then rise briefly in the ‘west’ and finally set again in the ‘west’.
There are reasons why it was thought that the planet was tidally locked to the Sun, but with radar observations and such it was soon discovered that it does indeed rotate with respect to the Sun.
@everybody else
Scientific funding is NOT as slipshod or ‘silly’ as everyone here seems to think!
@steverino
Hate to burst your bubble, but Mercury does rotate on its axis with respect to the Sun. It has a rotational period of 176 earth-days. This combined with it’s orbital period causes it to have an unusual day!?! From a person’s aspect standing on Mercury’s surface, the Sun would in the ‘east’ then briefly set in the ‘east’. The Sun would then cross the sky and set in the ‘west’, it would then rise briefly in the ‘west’ and finally set again in the ‘west’.
There are reasons why it was thought that the planet was tidally locked to the Sun, but with radar observations and such it was soon discovered that it does indeed rotate with respect to the Sun.
@everybody else
Scientific funding is NOT as slipshod or ‘silly’ as everyone here seems to think!