giangola mroz mercury

7/29/2019 Giangola Mroz Mercury

1/15

Mercury

By Daniel Giangola and Vivian

Mroz


2/15

History of Discovery:

Roman mythology- god of commerce, travel, and thievery

Roman counterpart of Greek god Hermes Received name because of swift movement across the sky Known of since time of Sumerians, c. 3000, discovery not credited to one person Greeks gave it two names, but knew it was one planet:

o Apollo- morningo Hermes- evening


3/15


4/15

Statistics

Size: Earth= baseball so Mercury= golf ball Diameter: 4,879 km Mass: .06 x the weight of earth Density: 5.4 g/cm3 Distance from sun: 57.9 (million km) rate of rotation: 59 days rate of revolution: 87 days

Eccentricity of orbit: .206 Orbit: 57,910,000 km from the sun


5/15

VS.


6/15

Mercurian day/year

rotation on axis- 59 Earth days revolution around sun (year) - 87 Earth days Mercurian day (sunrise to sunrise) - 176 Earth days 1 Mercurian day takes almost 2 full Mercurian years

o 1st year is day, 2nd is night


7/15


8/15

Exploration

Mariner 10: Planet Mercury was explored in threeflybys by the Mariner 10 spacecraft in 1974 and1975.o Mapped less than 50% of Mercury's surface

Messenger Spacecraft (MErcury Surface, SpaceENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging):o In 2004, the United States launched the Messenger probe to

Mercury. Messenger was scheduled to fly by Mercury twice in2008 and once in 2009 before going into orbit around theplanet in 2011.

o The probe was then to orbit Mercury for one Earth year whilemapping Mercury's surface and studying its composition,interior structure, and magnetic field.

o NASA extended the mission for a year past the planned end ofthe mission on March 17 (2012)


9/15

Messenger and Water

MESSENGER recently provided compelling support to prove Mercury has abundant water ice Water ice believed to be in permanently shadowed craters at poles organic material also discovered with water Evidence:

o excess hydrogen discovered at north poleo reflectance of polar deposits at near-infrared wavelengthso first detailed models of surface temperatures


10/15

Messenger and Mercury's Core

Core is 85% of the planetary radius Core is at least partially liquid Iron sulfide outer core deeper liquid core possibly a solid inner core


11/15

Surface/Composition:

core generates a magnetic field about 1% of earth's like earth mercury has a mantle, crust, and a core, but the core may have 3 layers

the surface is full of cratered terrains (some are very large and smooth plains largest known crater is Caloris Basin diameter of 1300 km (800 miles) the surface is covered in a mineral called silicates in the form of tiny particles (these also make

up the mantle)


12/15

Geologic History of Mercury

Lava flowed outward through cracks in mantle to form intercrater plains (4.2 billion years ago) Solar tides formed large-scale linear features (such as cliffs) Intense meteor bombardment caused cratering and produced impact basins smooth plains were created, possibly from voclanic activity triggered by early meteor impacts

(3.8 billion years ago) Now is very quiet geologically


13/15

Fun Facts

something that is 100 lbs on earth is 38 lbs on mercury

second most dense planet (earth is the first) force of gravity is a third as strong as earth Mercury is the fastest moving planet in our Solar

System and is the nearest planet to the Sun. (ZOOM

ZOOM ZOOM) Mercury is one of the four terrestrial planets, being arocky body like the Earth. It is the smallest of the four.

the color of mercury is Orangery It is only 4,878km across and is not much larger than

our moon. Its surface temperature ranges from -170degrees at night to 500 degree celcius in the day-greatest temperature swing in solar system.

Atmosphere consists of trace amounts of Helium andHydrogen- atmospheric pressure is about 1 x 10^-9

millibars (about 2 trillionths of Earth's atmospheric


14/15

vs

DENSE

ZOOM! ZOOM! ZOOM!

ORANGEY

IS THECOLOR

MARS

VENUS

EARTH

MERCURY


15/15

Works Cited

"The Fifth Internet." The Fifth Internet. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.. "NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration." NASA. N.p., n.d.

Web. 24 Feb. 2013..

"The Planet Mercury." The Planet Mercury. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2013..

"Solar System Exploration: Planets: Mercury: Overview." Solar SystemExploration: Planets: Mercury: Overview. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2013..

"Mercury Day and Year - Zoom Astronomy." Mercury Day and Year - ZoomAstronomy. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2013..

"The Surface and Interior of Mercury." The Surface and Interior of Mercury.N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2013..

"Life on Mercury? Scientists Claim Discovery of Water on 'the Swift Planet'- RT News."Life on Mercury? Scientists Claim Discovery of Water on 'theSwift Planet' - RT News. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.

.

giangola mroz mercury

Documents