Geography 2090A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Solar System, Venera 7, Venera 1

• School: Western University
• Department: Geography
• Course: Geography 2090A/B
• Professor: Daniel Bednar

Document Summary

2001 the us near shoemaker spacecraft landed on the asteroid eros. 2005 the european huygens probe landed on titan: 2015 the european philea lander landed on comet 67p/churyumov-gerasimenko, exploring mercury, mari(cid:374)er progra(cid:373) (cid:894)(cid:1010)(cid:1004)(cid:859)s a(cid:374)d (cid:1011)(cid:1004)(cid:859)s(cid:895) to e(cid:454)plore the i(cid:374)(cid:374)er planets (mercury, venus, & mars) Primary goal was to identify if mercury had any atmosphere. Made a close flyby of venus, photographing about 45% of its surface. Provided the first ever images of mercury, and is now in a decaying heliocentric orbit: messenger. In 2004 nasa launched the messenger orbiter to mercury: the (cid:373)issio(cid:374)(cid:859)s pri(cid:373)ar(cid:455) s(cid:272)ie(cid:374)(cid:272)e goals (cid:449)ere. Identify the chemical compositio(cid:374) of the pla(cid:374)et(cid:859)s surfa(cid:272)e: measure the strength of the magnetic field, after o(cid:448)er (cid:1005)(cid:1004) (cid:455)ears (cid:449)as i(cid:374)te(cid:374)tio(cid:374)all(cid:455) deor(cid:271)ited i(cid:374)to mer(cid:272)ur(cid:455)(cid:859)s surfa(cid:272)e. Examine the gas and dust around the planet: messenger findings, there are volatiles on the surface of mercury (including likely water ice at the poles) Identified some erosion by wind but none by water.