How many days does it take mercury to rotate?

Answer 1

It takes about 58.6 Earth days.

Answer 2

Sidereal rotation period is 58.646 days

Orbital period is 87.969 days

For many years it was thought that Mercury was synchronously tidally locked with the Sun, rotating once for each orbit and keeping the same face directed towards the Sun at all times, in the same way that the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth. However, radar observations in 1965 proved that the planet has a 3:2 spin-orbit resonance, rotating three times for every two revolutions around the Sun; the eccentricity of Mercury's orbit makes this resonance stable-at perihelion, when the solar tide is strongest, the Sun is nearly still in Mercury's sky.

The original reason astronomers thought it was synchronously locked was that whenever Mercury was best placed for observation, it was always nearly at the same point in its 3:2 resonance, hence showing the same face. This is because, coincidentally, Mercury's rotation period is almost exactly half of its synodic period with respect to Earth.

Answer 3

It takes about 59 Earth days for Mercury to complete one full rotation on its axis. However, due to its elliptical orbit, Mercury's rotation and orbital periods are in a 3:2 resonance, so a day on Mercury (from one sunrise to the next) is about 176 Earth days.

Answer 4

It takes Mercury just over 58 days to rotate on it's axis and 88 days to orbit the Sun

Answer 5

Mercury rotates on its axis once in about 58.6 Earth days.

Answer 6

16 hours