Hypothetical moon of Mercury
Hypothesized natural satellite orbiting Mercury / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and lacks any natural satellites. An undiscovered moon orbiting the planet was hypothesized to exist in the early 1970s, but it turned out to be misinterpreted data from the star 31 Crateris.[1] Observation of a moon of Mercury from Earth would be difficult because Mercury is relatively close to the Sun.[2] For example, Mercury was not observed in the infrared spectrum until 1995.[2] NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, which orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015, did not detect any moon.[3][4] Mercury's small Hill sphere limits the potential for a natural satellite to exist.[5]