Exploring Mercury: The Iron PlanetSpringer Science & Business Media, 15. juuli 2003 - 216 pages Strom: Mercury How did Mercury get such an enormous iron core? Why is its tectonic framework so different from any other planet or satellite? What is its crystal composition? Why is the crust so depleted in iron when the interior is so rich in that element? What are the polar deposits? Where do the elements in the exosphere come from? Mercury is a planet shrouded in mystery. Only 45 percent of its surface has been seen in any detail, and that was from the Mariner 10 flyby in 1974. Yet what is known only makes the planet more fascinating. New Earth-based observations have shed light on surface and exosphere compositions, and re-evaluations of the Mariner 10 data, using modern image processing techniques, show evidence for volcanic flow fronts, pyroclastics and other volcanic phenomena not seen before. This ground-breaking book not only chronicles what has been discovered, but looks ahead to what has yet to emerge. An accompanying CD contains all the best Mariner 10 images, including the data for each image, photomosaics and maps. |
Contents
The twilight planet | 1 |
12 EARLIEST OBSERVATIONS AND RECORDING IN MYTHOLOGY | 2 |
13 EARLY TELESCOPIC OBSERVATIONS | 3 |
14 MODERN TELESCOPIC OBSERVATIONS | 7 |
15 RESEARCH TELESCOPIC FACILITIES | 9 |
153 Future observations | 10 |
The Mariner 10 mission | 13 |
221 NASA chose the Jet Propulsion Laboratory | 14 |
834 The FeO band in Mercurian spectra | 100 |
835 MidIR spectroscopy | 101 |
837 Reststrahlen bands and emissivity maxima EM | 103 |
838 Transparency minima TM | 105 |
839 Comparison to the Moon | 107 |
84 WHERE IS THE IRON AT MERCURY? | 108 |
842 For Mercury low oxidized iron | 109 |
85 SUMMARY | 110 |
23 THE FLIGHT PLAN | 16 |
233 Scientific payload | 17 |
24 MARINER 10 GOES TO MERCURY | 20 |
242 Trouble begins | 21 |
243 Systems restored | 23 |
25 THE FIRST MERCURY ENCOUNTER MERCURY I | 25 |
252 The first real surprise | 26 |
253 A very thin atmosphere no molecular species found | 27 |
254 Hot hotter hottest | 28 |
262 Conflicts over experiments and spacecraft control | 29 |
263 Decisions were made | 30 |
27 THE THIRD ENCOUNTER MERCURY III | 33 |
272 Magnetic field measurements | 34 |
Mercurys motions | 37 |
311 A highly eccentric orbit | 39 |
313 Inclined to be noticed | 40 |
2 spin orbit resonance | 41 |
316 No seasonal variations | 43 |
32 MERCURY AND RELATIVITY | 44 |
Mercurys size mass and density | 47 |
43 DENSITY | 49 |
432 Mercury has the greatest uncompressed density of any planet | 51 |
Mercurys magnetic field and internal constitution | 55 |
512 Comparison to Earths magnetic field | 56 |
513 Mercurys magnetic field could be remanent | 57 |
52 REMANENT MAGNETIC FIELDS ON THE MOON | 58 |
54 A NEW LOOK AT OLD DATA | 60 |
55 INTERIOR STRUCTURE AND CONSTITUTION | 61 |
553 Relevance of Mercurys surface composition to the magnetic field question | 62 |
562 Space weathering | 63 |
Mercurys surfacebounded exosphere | 65 |
613 Sunlight interacting with matter | 66 |
614 Exospheric pressure? | 67 |
62 EXOSPHERIC ATOMS AND MULTIPLE SPEED COMPONENTS | 69 |
623 Atoms in escape | 70 |
631 Differentiating one source from another | 71 |
General surface features and radar characteristics | 73 |
72 MAJOR SURFACE FEATURES | 76 |
722 Mercury is unique | 77 |
732 Naming features on Mercury | 79 |
74 RADAR CHARACTERISTICS AND SPECIAL FEATURES | 83 |
742 The Goldstein features | 84 |
743 Radar observations discover highly backscattering polar deposits | 85 |
Surface composition | 91 |
811 Mercurys EUV UVVIS and nearIR albedo | 92 |
812 Changes of albedo with phase change | 93 |
82 MATERIALS OF TERRESTRIAL PLANETARY SURFACES | 96 |
83 MERCURYS SURFACE COMPOSITION | 98 |
831 Measuring surface composition with a telescope | 99 |
The impact cratering record | 111 |
92 CRATER FORMATION | 112 |
923 Volatilization and melting of surface and impactor | 113 |
932 Difference in Physical Properties of Lunar and Mercurian Highlands | 114 |
94 EJECTA DEPOSITS | 117 |
943 Crater degradation | 118 |
95 THE CALORIS AND OTHER IMPACT BASINS | 119 |
96 HILLY AND LINEATED TERRAIN | 125 |
97 ORIGIN OF IMPACTING BODIES | 128 |
972 Elusive vulcanoids | 129 |
973 Evidence for two collisional populations | 130 |
974 Surfaces younger than the period of heavy bombardment | 135 |
98 RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE AGES | 137 |
981 Mercurys surface is ancient | 139 |
Plains smooth and intercrater | 141 |
103 THE INTERCRATER PLAINS SOME DETAILS | 142 |
1032 Crater degradation by intercrater plains | 144 |
104 SMOOTH PLAINS SOME DETAILS | 145 |
105 ORIGINS OF PLAINS | 146 |
1051 Mercurys smooth plains as impact basin ejecta deposits or impact melt | 147 |
1052 Mercurys smooth plains as volcanic deposits | 148 |
1053 Mercurys intercrater plains as volcanic deposits | 151 |
106 MODES OF VOLCANIC PLAINS FORMATION | 152 |
1062 Terrestrial magmas and temperature | 153 |
1063 What type of volcanism occurred on Mercury? | 154 |
1064 Compositions of Mercurys plains | 155 |
Tectonics | 157 |
1111 Fault types and mechanics | 158 |
1112 Topographic expression | 160 |
1122 Distribution and age | 161 |
1123 The shrunken planet | 164 |
1124 Thrusting lithospheric and crustal thickness | 165 |
1133 Despinning fault pattern | 166 |
History and origin | 169 |
1221 Scenario 1 an active dipole | 170 |
1222 Scenario 2 a remanent field | 172 |
1231 Chemical equilibrium models | 173 |
1233 Which hypothesis is correct? | 174 |
Future exploration of Mercury | 181 |
1321 Mission objectives | 182 |
1322 Science experiments | 183 |
133 THE EUROPEJAPAN BEPI COLOMBO MISSION | 184 |
Orbital and physical data for Mercury | 185 |
Glossary of terms | 187 |
Names and Locations of Mercurys Surface Features | 195 |
Bibliography | 203 |
| 211 | |
Common terms and phrases
abundance albedo anorthosite aphelion areas asteroids atmosphere atoms basalts Caloris basin composition continuous ejecta crust crustal density diagram distance Earth days ejecta deposits emission exosphere feldspar Figure flood basalts flyby formed fractures g/cm³ geologic ground-based heavily cratered heavy bombardment hemisphere hilly and lineated impact basins impact craters indicate intercrater plains iron core km diameter km/s latitude lava lineated terrain locations longitude lunar highlands lunar maria magnetic field magnetosphere mantle Mariner 10 images Mars material measurements Mercurian Mercury Mercury's exosphere Mercury's surface meteorites minerals mission Moon observations orbit perihelion period of heavy photomosaic plagioclase planet or satellite planetary polar regions pyroxene regolith relatively remanent field rocks semimajor silicate similar SiO2 size/frequency distributions smooth plains Solar System solar wind space weathering spacecraft spectra spectrometer spectrum Strom tectonic telescope temperature terrestrial planets thermal third encounter thrust faults trajectory velocity Venus volcanic wavelength