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Template: http://www.free-ppt-templates.com/2013/11/universe-ppt-template.html FactsWorld • Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system, with a diameter of 4879 km • No moons orbit around Mercury • Closest to the Sun • Virtually no atmosphere • Least explored terrestrial planet in our solar system • Goes around the sun the fastest of all the planets in our solar system • Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun with a distance of 0.39 AU, or 57.91 million km • Smallest planet • It is not the hottest, Venus is • This is because Mercury does not have an atmosphere, while Venus does • Mercury has not been a primary focus of many space programs • Mercury is 77 million km from Earth • In total, there have been two spacecrafts that have visited Mercury. • Mercury was named Hermes by the ancient Greeks • Hermes was the messenger of the gods, so he moved very fast- Mercury appeared to move very fast across the sky • Later, some Greek astronomers got confused when they saw Mercury on one side of the Sun in the morning, and one the other side in the evening • Therefore, some people thought Mercury were two different stars. In the evening Mercury was called Apollo, and Hermes, in the morning. • The Romans later adopted the Greek god Hermes, renaming him Mercurius, now called Mercury • • • • • • • • • Timocharis, a Greek philosopher thought to have been born in Alexandria, Egypt, around 300 BC, was the first person to record his observations of Mercury. Between 1609 and 1618, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler determined the orbital motion of the planets, which calculated how the planets revolved around the Sun. This discovery allowed Kepler to predict when and where Mercury would be in the sky, and also when it would pass between the Sun and Earth, called a transit. In 1639, astronomer Giovanni Zupus discovered Mercury has phases, like our moon. In the later 1700s, Johann Hieronymus Schroeter was the first person to record details about Mercury’s terrain. He said that Mercury might have an atmosphere, but however, his findings proved not to be accurate. German-born British astronomer Sir William Herschel was the first to make serious telescopic observations of Mercury in the late eighteenth century. Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli caused a great stir in astronomy by reporting markings on Mars and Mercury in 1877. He called these canilis, or canals. Schiaparelli’s work encouraged Percival Lowell to further investigate the canals on Mars and Mercury. A French astronomer in 1933 named Eugenios Antoniadi chartered the surface of Mercury in the most detail at the time. Here, as you can see, Mercury has been an important figure in the histories of many civilizations and cultures. • • • • • • • A year on Mercury would be 88 Earth days, or 25% of an Earth year Mercury’s days are very long Since Mercury rotates very slowly, it takes about 59 Earth days for Mercury to complete one rotation. To calculate your weight on Mercury, multiply your weight in pounds by 0.38. You wouldn’t be able to breathe- Mercury has virtually no atmosphere- it’s very thin atmosphere contains small amounts of hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. It also has tiny amounts of sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Temperatures range from -173 Celsius at night to 427 Celsius during the day Mercury is one of the only two planets that have magnetic fields. Although Mercury’s magnetic field is weaker than Earth’s, you could still use a compass when you get lost. • • • • • • • • • Mercury has many craters, the surface of Mercury closely resembles the Moon’s This is because that since Mercury does not have much of an atmosphere, asteroids crash into Mercury at full impact One of the largest impact craters in the solar system is on Mercury, the Caloris Basin The surface on Mercury is believed to be geologically inactive now and for billion of years It is predicted that Mercury was heavily bombarded by a lot of asteroids and comets about 3.8 billion years ago At the time, Mercury was volcanically active and basins like the Caloris basin were filled with magma. Radar imaging of Mercury has shown that there may be water on the planet. The inside walls of the deep craters at Mercury’s north pole never see daylight, which may allow water to exist If water is found, it is probably from comets carrying ice which have made contact with the planet • • • • • Mercury is made up of three layers- the crust, the mantle, and the core The crust is the outside layer of the planet. It is made up of solid rock. Most of it can be up to 4.2 billion years old, burying any craters from meteorite impacts before that time. The mantle is under the crust. It is about 560 km thick. Scientists believe that Mercury’s mantle is made up of silicate materials, that is, materials that are made up of the element silicon and other elements, such as aluminum or iron The core, the center of the planet, is mostly iron (about 65%). However, there are also small traces of nickel. It is predicted that the core is molten. Mercury’s core is about 3700 km around. This layer actually makes up most of the planet, and in relation to the size of the core and the size of the planet, Mercury’s core is larger than any other planet’s core in our solar system. Mercury is actually the second dense planet in our solar system (Earth is first) Description Mariner 10 •NASA launched Mariner 10 on November 3, 1973 •It was the tenth and the only one out of ten to go to Mercury •Three months later, the spacecraft reached Venus, and after taking pictures of Venus, moved onto Mercury •It flew past Mercury twice, one in 1974 and 1975, with a gap of six months between each flyby. •Only about 45% of Mercury was photographed because every time Mariner returned, the same side was in the dark •The mission ended on March 24, 1975 MESSENGER •MESSENGER stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging. •The probe was launched on August 3, 2004 •This probe was hoped to collect more information about Mercury •After two flybys, the spacecraft orbited Mercury •Enough data was collected to produce images of over 95% of its surface •Mission ended on April 30, 2015, when MESSENGER was allowed to crash land after a decaying orbit Image Both used “gravity slingshots”- use of the relative movement and gravity of a planet to alter the speed and path of a spacecraft. The planets they used as slingshots were Earth and Venus- it helped them save propellant, time, and expense • BepiColombo will be Europe’s first mission to Mercury. • It is set to launch in 2017 • BepiColombo is expected to provide the best information about Mercury to date • The mission comprises two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) • When Mercury and Earth are at their closest in their orbits, they are 77 million km apart • Traveling to Mercury by rocket at 11 km per second, the trip would take at least 79 days • Mercury’s sunshine is six times brighter than it is on Earth because of its close distance to the Sun • Light from the Sun takes only about three minutes to reach Mercury, while on Earth it is eight • Boekhoff, P. M., and Stuart A. Kallen. Mercury. San Diego, Calif.: Kidhaven, 2003. Print. • Croce, Carlo P. Mercury. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 2005. Print. • Goss, Tim. Mercury. Place of Publication Not Identified: Heinemann Raintree, 2002. Print. • Dunbar, Brian. NASA. NASA. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. <http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasaknows/what-is-planet-mercury-k4.html>. • "Mercury - Astronomy For Kids - KidsAstronomy.com." Mercury Astronomy For Kids - KidsAstronomy.com. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. <http://www.kidsastronomy.com/mercury.htm>. • "ESA." BepiColombo. Web. <sci.esa.int/bepicolombo/>. • "Exploration of Mercury." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mercury>.