6/29/2023 0 Comments Mercury orbit![]() Here, our magnetic field is caused by the core and mantle's dynamo effect. Yes, Mercury, as small as it is, has a magnetic field! Much like that on Earth and possibly, due to the same mechanism. The Mercury Messenger mission has given us new insight to the exosphere's tail that trails behind the planet as seen in the video below and has found that it contains relatively high amounts of Sodium. As previously stated, as these things are created, they are also being stripped away. Since Mercury does have gravity, small amounts of Helium and Hydrogen are trapped for short periods of time. As particles and heat stream from the sun, it encounters Mercury's surface and causes materials on the topmost layers to be stripped away. Mercury's exosphere is constantly being stripped and created by the heat of the sun and the solar wind. that are being held into a diffuse sphere by gravity. It is unlike Earth's atmosphere which is made up of gasses like Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, et. Compare this to Earth's diameter of 12,713 Km (7,899 Mi).ĭoes Mercury have an atmosphere? Short answer: Kind of. As you see, at 4879 Km (3032 miles), it's just slightly larger than the Moon, which is 3474 Km (2159 miles). Even though its range varies between 40 million kilometers to 70 million kilometers and is closer to us in this picture, you easily see how big a sunspot is in comparison.īelow is an approximate size comparison to the Earth and the Moon. ![]() The upper image shows you a Mercury transit across the Sun. The images above and below give you a picture of how small Mercury actually is. Soon, the JAXA/ESA joint venture spacecraft called the BepiColombo will be underway to further study and understand Mercury. Sent by NASA, it is slowly showing the surface details and composition, the magnetic fields, and its sodium pseudo-atmosphere. Currently orbiting the planet is the Mercury MESSENGER spacecraft. Named for the Roman messenger to the gods, this small and fairly unstudied planet is finally becoming understood after years of waiting. In the meantime, Daniel and his colleagues will start to follow up on questions such as: can the characteristics of the magnetic field from the northern hemisphere be easily transferred to the southern hemisphere? Has the magnetic field generated by the dynamo perhaps even changed in the last six years after the Messenger mission – as it continuously does on Earth? The new BepiColombo flyby data – and eventually data from its main science mission – will be compared with global magnetic field models created from the Messenger mission to create the most accurate picture yet of Mercury’s magnetic field.Here, closest to the sun, orbits the small planet of Mercury. Moreover, the two orbiters will travel through different areas of Mercury’s magnetosphere and on different timescales, measuring simultaneously how the magnetic field changes over time and in space, and its relationship to the powerful solar wind. Once in Mercury orbit, complementary magnetic field measurements made by both ESA’s MPO and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (known as Mio) will lead to a detailed analysis of the planet’s magnetic field and its source, in order to better understand the origin, evolution and current state of the planet’s interior. ![]() The resulting sonification captures the changing intensity of the magnetic field and solar wind, including the moment the spacecraft crossed the magnetosheath – the highly turbulent boundary region between the solar wind and the magnetosphere around the planet. The data has been converted into sound to be audible to the human ear.
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