Mercury

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Mercury

• By Erik Miller, Jake High, Jeff Peters

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General Information

• 0.4 AU from the Sun. Closest planet to the Sun.
• Orbital period 87.97 Earth days.
• Siderial period 58 Earth days.
• Radius of the planet is 2439.5 km. Basically 1/3
  of the earth.
• Volume 6.083x1010 km3

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General Information

• Mass 3.30x1023 kg
• Density 5.44g cm3 (Earth 5.497g cm3)
• Why are the densities so close?

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General Information

• Eccentricity
• Temperature Features
• Magnetic Field 1 of Earths
• No known Satellites

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Structure

• Composed of a Core, Mantle, and Crust
• Core makes up 80 of Mercurys mass and 42 of
  the volume.
• Why such a large core?

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Interior Structure
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Core Theories

• Accretion theory
• Lighter particles were stopped by solar nebula
  drag
• Impact theory
• A mass roughly 1/6 of its own hit the planet at a
  point and time.
• Vaporization theory
• Rock was vaporized and carried away by solar
  winds.

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How do we get our information?

• Mariner 10
• Images of the surface
• Atmosphere
• Magnetic fields
• Radar imagery
• Surface Conditions

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Mariner 10 Photograph
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Mariner 10 Photograph
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Mercury Craters

• Largest Crater (Beethoven 600 kilometers across)
• Smallest Crater (about 20 kilometers across)
• Craters are similar to the Moons craters except
• The secondary craters are closer to impact
  craters.

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Shakespeare Quadrangle
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Bach Area
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Caloris Basin

• Estimated creation 4 billion year ago
• Estimated extensive volcanism is 3.9 million
  years.
• Only have seen 1/3 of the Caloris basin

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Caloris Basin

• Largest Formation 1,300 km wide or ¼ the planets
  diameter.
• Creation
• Immense meteor smashes planet
• Shockwave causes Weird terrain
• Fills with lava and wrinkles as it cools

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Future Exploration

• Messenger- 2008
• NASA
• BepiColumbo- 2011
• ESA