Tag Archives: mercury

Geology of the Moon and Mercury – Blog 4

Posted on March 2, 2024 by Cameron Klein

After writing my last blog post about atmospheres and the greenhouse effect, when learning that the atmospheres of the Moon and Mercury cause them to be considered practically airless and have no weather, I became heavily intrigued. What makes the Moon and Mercury so different from the other planets in our solar system? Thus, I […] Continue reading →

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Mercury and its core | blog IV

Posted on March 20, 2022 by clviggiano

Measuring just over one-third of Earth’s diameter, Mercury is the smallest terrestrial planet in the solar system. However, relative to other worlds, Mercury’s core constitutes a very large part of its volume. Despite the vast difference in their scale, “Mercury’s inner core is indeed solid [and] very nearly the same size as Earth’s inner core,” […] Continue reading →

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Mercury’s Shrinkage

Posted on March 25, 2021 by solarcecily

It’s been long thought that of the Fab (Terrestrial) Five, only Earth remains geologically active. However, recent evidence shows that little Mercury, long thought to be tectonically dead, is actually shrinking! The evidence comes in the form of small troughs (upper arrows in the picture below) and scarps (lower arrows) astronomers were able to photographContinue reading “Mercury’s Shrinkage” Continue reading →

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Surface Features of Mercury

Posted on March 19, 2021 by lauryn28

Mercury is a terrestrial planet, though it is quite different in appearance than Earth. It’s grey rocky surface more resembles that of the moon, however unlike the moon Mercury has a liquid iron core and is much denser. Moreover, Mercury’s surface features paint an interesting story of past geological occurrences. Mercury formed around 4.6 billionContinue reading “Surface Features of Mercury” Continue reading →

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Exploration and Geology of Mercury

Posted on March 12, 2019 by jordyn27

Because it is so technically difficult to reach Mercury with spacecraft’s from Earth, the geology of Mercury is understood the least of all the terrestrial worlds. The main reason it is so hard to reach is due to how close Mercury is to the Sun.  When a spacecraft moves down Sun’s gravitational potential well to … Continue reading Exploration and Geology of Mercury → Continue reading →

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Retrograde Motion: Illusions and Jinxes

Posted on February 12, 2018 by aquarianastronomy

Understanding the heavens has proven confusing for countless generations of humans in part because of the illusions caused by our perspective from earth. For millennia, the majority opinion was a geocentric universe, where the sun, moon, planets, and stars revolved around the earth, since they all seemed to do so from the earth’s perspective. All […] Continue reading →

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Blog Post #7: Comets Can Be Artists Too

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Elizabeth D.

bbc.com A new study shows that Mercury may have been “painted” black by passing comets. In class, we have learned to compare …

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Messenger’s Last Legs

Posted on April 5, 2015 by dillonkoval

The MESSENGER mission, short for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging sent up the probe in August 2004. In March 2011 it became the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. The probe has done a lot in its years around the Solar System’s first planet including: constructing the best-ever maps of Mercury and discovering carbon-containing […] Continue reading →

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Geological Activity of Mercury

Posted on March 17, 2014 by joshkphilips

Image Source For many years, scientists have regarded Mercury as a planet that has little to offer, as it is more or less a ‘dead’ planet. Mercury has acquired such dull attributes given its treacherous location in the Solar System. Its proximity to the Sun allows the sun-facing side of mercury to reach temperatures of […] Continue reading →

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