Ice may cover parts of Mercury


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The planet closest to the sun appears to have more ice at its poles than does Earth's moon, say scientists analyzing data from the Messenger spacecraft.

Despite their proximity to the sun, portions of the surface of Mercury appear to be covered in ice, scientists said Thursday after analyzing about 20,000 new images of the solar system's smallest planet.

The pictures beamed to Earth by the Messenger spacecraft strongly suggest that frozen water ? and perhaps other frozen substances ? coat portions of impact craters near the planet's north and south poles. Permanently enshrouded in shadow, these surfaces are typically 300 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

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"One of the great ironies is that Mercury may have more ice at its poles than even our own moon," Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said at a news conference in Washington.

The pictures taken by Messenger reveal that the planet closest to the sun ? once considered "the burnt-out cinder of the solar system," as Green put it ? is a world unlike any other.

Messenger, which entered Mercury's orbit in March, is providing panoramic views of expansive, smooth volcanic plains that cover an area roughly half the size of the continental U.S.

Scientists can see, in great detail, faults formed when pieces of Mercury's crust were pushed together, as well as numerous impact craters that have been covered over by lava flows. They are also getting a close-up look at the dark area around the central peak of the Degas crater in the planet's northern hemisphere and the scar-like remnants of pyroclastic flows, once fast-moving, boiling rivers of gas and rock.

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I'm not creative enough to come up with a real comment, really! I did mean it in a good way truly, I find these subjects fascinating!

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I would think the entire planet would be warm, to say the least.

I guess in theory, you could set up a livable base on Mercury then.

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I would think the entire planet would be warm, to say the least.

I guess in theory, you could set up a livable base on Mercury then.

-300f? I don't think so...

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^ The entire planet can't be -300 ... there has to be some areas where the temperatures would be something close to 'normal'.

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I would think the entire planet would be warm, to say the least.

I guess in theory, you could set up a livable base on Mercury then.

?183 ?C to 427 ?C

No atmosphere, so it's hot where the sun shines, and cold where it don't.

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^ I am not saying you can plant crops and grass.

But there must be pockets of reasonable temps, a few miles from the ice caps, where an enclosed base could exist.

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^ I am not saying you can plant crops and grass.

But there must be pockets of reasonable temps, a few miles from the ice caps, where an enclosed base could exist.

Only in the mid-morning of Mercury can something like a base could exist. As soon as you reach noon, it gets so hot almost all metals melt (though we gotta remember that in Mercury, it takes to get from morning to noon around a month in Earth time).

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But there must be pockets of reasonable temps, a few miles from the ice caps, where an enclosed base could exist.

That only works in a planet with an atmosphere to speak of. Mercury has no such thing, and the very moment sunlight is no longer hitting the surface, any heat disappears.

Earth works the way it does because of it's relatively thick atmosphere.

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Mercury sounds like that prison planet from The Chronicles of Riddick. If you are caught in the open sun then you fry but if you hide in a crater then you could find yourself standing on ice. Without an atmosphere the heat of the sun doesn't expand to fill all of the hidden places (particularly in the poles).

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im thinking that mercury could be an awesome place for some kind of base which uses thermodynamic power i.e. the flow of heat to power machines ... kind of abit like steam powered machines, the hot side could be used to boil the water while the permenantly dark areas will absorb the heat from the steam and condenses it to water before going back to the hot side, so it goes in a cycle and you can turn turbines etc with the steam

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im thinking that mercury could be an awesome place for some kind of base which uses thermodynamic power i.e. the flow of heat to power machines ... kind of abit like steam powered machines, the hot side could be used to boil the water while the permenantly dark areas will absorb the heat from the steam and condenses it to water before going back to the hot side, so it goes in a cycle and you can turn turbines etc with the steam

Sounds like a good idea.

But then, I'm not sure why we would want a base on Mercury.

And how do you protect a ship of humans, while you approach the Sun ...

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Sounds like a good idea.

But then, I'm not sure why we would want a base on Mercury.

And how do you protect a ship of humans, while you approach the Sun ...

Just make the ship (and the base) out of any element with a melting point higher than 500 degrees Celcius.

Carbon would be wonderful.

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Solar "radiation" during the low sunspot periods is much reduced, and mostly not x-rays. For this water blankets (Bigelow uses them), polyethelene or other high-hydrogen materials (again, Bigelow habs - 16" of it.)

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Only in the mid-morning of Mercury can something like a base could exist. As soon as you reach noon, it gets so hot almost all metals melt (though we gotta remember that in Mercury, it takes to get from morning to noon around a month in Earth time).

Logically, we'd set the base(s) up as far in towards the poles as we can stand during construction. Much easier to heat a base than it is to cool it off. I'm sure with the right math NASA could find an ideal location for the base as well as a solar panel field.

I think the primary issue with creating a "liveable" base on mercury would be finding volunteers to live there :D

I thought they already found 300+?

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