![\"Mercury](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/33e8db89-7d4d-4f1d-aa2b-af30da510599.jpeg\")
Mercury is in retrograde this week. (NASA)<\/p>\nMercury is in retrograde again this week. It’s the celestial phenomenon that astrologists love to blame for everything –\u00a0 from messy breakups to Wi-Fi meltdowns.<\/p>\n
But what is actually happening during the much-maligned planetary event?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Space expert Sara Webb, from Melbourne’s Swinburne University, says there is nothing to worry about, because the truth is, it’s all a cosmic illusion.<\/p>\n
Mercury is in retrograde this week. (NASA)<\/p>\n
Despite how it looks from your backyard, Mercury isn’t actually reversing its orbit. That would involve breaking several fundamental laws of physics.<\/p>\n
“A retrograde is when a planet appears to move backwards from its regular motion in the night sky,” Webb said.<\/p>\n
Think of it like being in a fast car on a freeway. When you pull into the fast lane and overtake a slower car, for a brief moment, that slower car looks like it’s moving backward relative to you.<\/p>\n
Because Mercury sits closer to the Sun, it regularly zips past Earth. As it overtakes us, our perspective from the ground makes it look like the tiny planet has done a U-turn.<\/p>\n
“It’s a humble reminder that we exist in the solar system of millions of other objects orbiting the same beautiful star, just at different rates,” Webb said.<\/p>\n
While the “retrograde” part is just a trick of the light, Mercury itself is actually quite a hardened survivor.<\/p>\n
Scientists now believe the planet used to be much larger. It’s theorised that a massive, ancient collision stripped away its outer layers, leaving behind the dense, metallic world we see today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We have precise measurements of its motion, size, and composition,” Webb said.<\/p>\n
While we understand exactly how it moves, there is zero evidence that its planetary shimmy has any impact on our lives.<\/p>\n
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