Hidden Territory On Mercury Revealed, page 1
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Topic started on 3-11-2009 @ 05:42 PM by argentus
Nov. 3, 2009: The MESSENGER spacecraft's third flyby of the planet Mercury has given scientists, for the first time, an almost complete view of the planet's surface and revealed some dramatic changes in Mercury's comet-like tail.

"The new images remind us that Mercury continues to hold surprises," says Sean Solomon, principal investigator for the mission and director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
NASA

And what sort of surprises? Well, something I find particularly interesting is the variance in Mercury's sodium exosphere "tail" between the first and second flyby:




According to NASA, approximately 98% of Mercury's surface has now been surveyed and photographed, and many new images are now available for us to pour over and test our brains for anomaly recongnition.

Future flybys will focus on the poles of Mercury, as when Messenger goes into orbit.

The observations also show that calcium and magnesium in the exosphere exhibit different seasonal changes than sodium--a difference that researchers do not yet fully understand. After MESSENGER enters Mercury orbit in 2011, it can make a continuous study of seasonal changes in all exospheric constituents. That will provide key information on the relative importance of the processes that generate, sustain, and modify Mercury's atmosphere.
. Amazing. More info about the calcium/magnesium emissions HERE.


reply posted on 3-11-2009 @ 06:19 PM by Devino
reply to post by argentus



I think you should have titled this, NASA discovers Mercury's cometary tail. I guess this should be expected since Mercury has almost no magnetic field but yet it is new to me.

Venus also has a comet tail; Source-New Scientist
Venus sports a giant, ion-packed tail that stretches almost far enough to tickle the Earth when the two planets are in line with the Sun...."I didn't expect to find it," says team member Marcia Neugebauer of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "It's a really strong signal, and there's no doubt it's real."


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