Mercury (planet) three weeks, the Sun is almost stationary overhead, and is at its most brilliant because Mercury is at perihelion, its closest to the Sun. This prolonged exposure to the Sun at its brightest makes these two points the hottest places on Mercury. Conversely, there are two other points on the equator, 90 degrees of longitude apart from the first ones, where the Sun passes overhead only when the planet is at aphelion in alternate years, when the apparent motion of the Sun in Mercury's sky is relatively rapid. These points, which are the ones on the equator where the apparent
Eleventh planet Eleventh planet Eleventh planet (of the Solar System) may refer to Vesta, the eleventh object to be named a planet, later to be reclassified as an asteroid; Uranus, the eleventh planet from the Sun upon Vesta's discovery, though this was quickly superseded by new discoveries; or Haumea, which would be the eleventh planet if the classification advocated by Alan Stern "et al." were adopted; or Makemake, which would be the eleventh planet in terms of distance from the Sun, as opposed to order of discovery. The eleventh planet in the early 19th century was Uranus by order of distance from