~ How many more surprises will Mercury give us? ~

in space •  7 years ago  (edited)

Mercury, despite its dizzying orbit around the Sun has been observed since antiquity. And after many centuries of observation, some facts that were taken for granted turned out to be wrong.

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1 - MASCS VIRS interpolated color composite of the craters Rachmaninoff - Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington.

The first records that we have of the planet Mercury are approximately from the fourteenth century BC. His name appears in the famous Sumerian tablets, and the name given in his language was Udu.Idim.Gu, "the jumping planet".
It’s one of the five planets visible to the naked eye from the earth, but its small size and its orbital speed, make it visible only during certain hours of sunrise or sunset.
And depending on the hemisphere in which the observer is, it will be visible only in a few months.

In ancient times it was believed that Mercury were two different celestial bodies. In the morning it had a name and in the afternoon another. From the Babylonians to the Greeks through the Egyptians to ancient China they gave two names to what we now know as Mercury. It was the Greek mathematician Pythagoras, the first to propose that it was the same celestial body.

_20180103_160932.JPG
2 - This is a photomosaic of images collected by Mariner 10 - Credit: NASA

Some centuries later the invention of the telescope helped astronomers to contemplate more closely, the first was Galileo. But it wasn't until 1639 when Giovanni Zupi with a improved telescope observed that the orbital phase was very similar to that of Venus. And thanks to that observation it was conclusively proven that Mercury orbited around the Sun. Johannes Kepler had already mathematically predicted his transit ahead of the Sun years before.

Its orbit had already been defined, but many unknowns remain. Then in 1800 Schröter with better telescopes began to see its surface, which brought unwise theories about its rotation. And for eighty years it was thought that Mercury rotated one over itself at the same speed as the Earth.
The most widespread theory since 1880 was that its rotation coincided with its orbital period, 88 days. Giovanni Schiaparelli came to that conclusion after observing and making the most accurate maps of that time.

For almost two centuries that rotation time was the most accepted. It was not until the sixties, when the use of radio telescopes began to offer Mercury surface temperature data.

”The CSIRO 210-ft radio telescope has been used to measure the thermal radio emission from Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Uranus between wavelenghts of 6 and 48 cm.”
”No appreciable phase variation was found in the 11-cm radiation from Mercury, indicating that there is little temperature difference between the illuminated and dark hemispheres. The effective surface temperature at 11 cm is between 250° and 300°K.”
Q1 - K.I.Kellermann (1966)

With these observations it was established that the Mercury rotation was almost 59 days. What coincides with 2/3 of its time of translation, this relationship is known as orbital resonance.


_20180103_160307.JPG
3 - Mariner 10 Composite color image- Source: NASA Planetary Photojournal.

In the seventies, the exploration of space by sending probes allowed us to map the part exposed to the Sun from Mercury's surface. The space probe Mariner 10 was responsible for this achievement, although it was only able to map around 45% of its surface.

The technological advance in terrestrial telescopes allowed the Mount Wilson Observatory to produce new images of Mercury regions never seen before in the early 2000s.

"Data from MESSENGER's scientific instruments have provided a trove of scientific discoveries. These include the identification of a new landform known as hollows, measurements indicating that Mercury has a remarkably high abundance of the volatile elements sulfur and potassium, and the discoveries that Mercury's magnetic field is offset relative to the planet's equator and that the planet has a highly unusual internal structure. In 1991, astronomers on Earth using radar observations showed that Mercury may have water ice at its north and south poles inside deep craters."
Q2 - Mercury: In Depth/NASA


After the many surprises that Mercury has given us, scientists now believe that it is shrinking.

To check and measure in more detail the characteristics of Mercury's magnetosphere a new mission will be sent there in 2018. This time, will be the ESA in collaboration with the Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA). That mission is BepiColombo. Although we will have to wait until 2026 to receive the data of that mission.

”BepiColombo comprises two scientific spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). Both of these will be delivered to the smallest planet in the Solar System by the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM). Shortly before Mercury orbit insertion, the MTM will be jettisoned from the spacecraft stack”
Q3 - BepiColombo/ESA

Will the two probes on board the BepiColombo be able to explain why Mercury shrinks?

With the new observations we will have to modify some of the hypotheses that are accepted today?


References


Mercury observations in antiquity.
http://www.astrofisicayfisica.com/2016/05/mercurio-en-la-antiguedad-historia-de.html?m=1

Q1 - K.I.Kellermann (1966)
https://doi.org/10.1016/0019-1035(66)90060-1

Q2, 1,2,3 - Mercury: In Depth/NASA
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mercury/indepth

Q3 - BepiColombo/ESA
http://sci.esa.int/bepicolombo/58591-bepicolombo-launch-rescheduled-for-october-2018/


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Gift-thanks to @markperandin

Let's take care of the pale blue dot

Enjoy your day. Enjoy your life.


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Gift-thanks to @stellabelle

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Hi, I found some acronyms/abbreviations in this post. This is how they expand:

AcronymExplanation
ESAEuropean Space Agency
JAXAJapan Aerospace eXploration Agency
Please leave an up-vote if you find this comment usefull.

Hi, I found some acronyms/abbreviations in this post. This is how they expand:

AcronymExplanation
ESAEuropean Space Agency
JAXAJapan Aerospace eXploration Agency
Please leave an up-vote if you find this comment usefull.

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hermano feliz año tiooooooo

Feliz año!
Espero que este precio que esta manteniendo steem continue y sea un buen año para todos nosotros.

si por dios tengo los dedos cruzados ahora mismo jejejeje

y que pasaria si sube tanto como el btc jejej, seria la leche eh?
nunca se sabe todo puede pasar, con que suba a un 10% del btc ya seria la leche

esta imagen tipo fractal me a gustado.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Eso sería estupendo para todos, aunque no creo que llegue nunca al precio del Btc.
Aún así, si se mantiene en estos precios puede ser una buena forma de incentivar a nuevos usuarios, inversores, etc.
En cuanto a mi firma, tube mucha suerte de que @stellabelle me lo hiciera. Ella supo captar exactamente lo que yo quería con tan solo un par de indicaciones.
Muchas gracias.

You think you got enough bot votes? This place isn't going to change unless people like you do. You clearly spent time on this article and it is thoughtful which is commendable but, according to stbot, your bot to organic bot ratio is high. There are a lot of hardworking Steemians that do not perpetuate the bot economy because we believe in a greater ideal. The ideal of equal voice. The concept that even a 0 SP holder can be rewarded for something exceptional. Unfortunately, in the present state, the likelihood of such a post never being noticed due to bid botters is great. If what I am saying resonates with you, join us.

Total Payout: $15.11. (Organic: $5.99, Bots: $9.12) Net Votes: 27. Comments: 13. Age: 10 hours old.

I could still have more, there are a few more vote buying services.
My ultimate goal is of course to have a good community of friends and followers and not have to use those services. But unfortunately that has not happened yet.
So for the moment I will continue to use the services that I consider appropriate to publicize my work.

Yeah, I disagree fundamentally with their use but understand why people do it.

Do you think it is a good thing that authors may use their stake to place their posts / comments above otherss irrespective of quality?

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Of course not.
The quality of the post is what gives value to our beloved community. That in my opinion is not debatable. And it is precisely what we all have to fight against. But that doesn’t mean that the creators of quality content, we can not advertise our work.

I reiterate that this is my personal opinion, and as I have written before, not something that I consider to continue doing indefinitely. If not as a powerful tool to give visibility to my blog.
Of course I would prefer to be investing my SBD in Steem instead of having to use it for this purpose.