Earth Sciences 1086F/G Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Pyroxene, Solar Wind, Solar Time
4 Jan 2021
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Document Summary
First rock from sun has no satellites is small. Always stays in the same region of the sky as the sun (hard to see from earth) and never gets closer to us than 80m km. Only spacecraft to get close to mercury was mariner 10 nearly all detailed knowledge of the planet was collected during three passes it made in 1974-1975 before crafts communication equipment failed. Much of our current understanding is based on messenger mission. Took nearly 7 years after 2004 launch to reach its destination many engineering challenges to avoid being pulled into sun"s gravity or being fried by intense solar radiation. Main objectives were to determine surface material composition, investigate reflective materials at poles, analyze magnetic fields, determine if there is a liquid outer core. Successfully entered orbit around mercury and spent the next four years collecting data.
