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Mercury
Topic Started: Dec 19 2009, 08:29 PM (577 Views)
Michelle
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Poor planet barely gets much attention...

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The so-called 'Weird terrain' on Mercury, at the antipodal point of the Caloris Basin. From http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/captions/mercury/mercter.htm.

WOW!!!

Posted Image

The Historical Transit of Mercury on November 8,2006. Please note that sunspot #923, which is just below the equator at the left-hand side, is much bigger than Mercury is. You can also see two more sunspots at the right-hand side at the equator. You can see Mercury as a small black dot in the lower middle of the solar disk. The picture was taken with a white filter.
Edited by Michelle, Dec 19 2009, 08:29 PM.
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CJ
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A very minor case of serious brain damage

I know; it doesn't, really :( . I wonder why? Maybe because it's so small and inhospitable.
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Michelle
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I know. I think Mercury is very beautiful.
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CJ
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A very minor case of serious brain damage

Yeah - all the planets are. I especially like the gas giants, though.
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Michelle
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It's so beautiful
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thecostumedanceparty
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I wonder if Mercury is a real planet or not... it's just so different.
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Michelle
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It's definitely a planet... :-/
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CJ
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A very minor case of serious brain damage

thecostumedanceparty
Dec 20 2009, 02:56 AM
I wonder if Mercury is a real planet or not... it's just so different.
What exactly do you mean :S ? I think it's definitely large enough to be classed as a planet, rather than a dwarf planet.
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Michelle
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It's larger than our moon and Pluto. So it is.
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Michelle
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The dark region at the center of this image, pieced together from photographs taken by NASA's Messenger spacecraft, includes the north pole of Mercury. Because Mercury's spin axis is almost exactly vertical, sunlight never reaches the bottoms of craters near the poles, and water ice can persist in the ultra cold temperatures there.”
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CJ
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A very minor case of serious brain damage

So, most of the planet is really hot, but a few isolated regions of it are really cold. I wonder whether, in theory, it would be possible to visit the cold bottoms of craters, and bring in heat from the rest of the planet?

Of course, in practice, there probably wouldn't be much of a reason to do so.
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