First Probe To Orbit Mercury Will Answer Big Questions


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I wonder why it has taken so long to send a probe back to Mercury.

Next month, the first space probe in nearly 40 years will approach the planet Mercury, with an array of instruments that could help answer fundamental questions about how planets form.

The mission is called MESSENGER, for Mercury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging. On March 17 it will pull into orbit around mercury, after more than six years of maneuvering between the Earth, Venus and Mercury itself.

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, completing one of its revolutions in only 88 days. Surface temperatures on during the day top out at 426 degrees Celsius (798 degrees Fahrenheit) - hot enough that lead and zinc would melt like ice on a hot day. Nighttime temperatures plunge to -173 degrees C (-279 F), cold enough to liquefy neon gas. Mercury also spins very slowly, and does so in such a way that a single day on Mercury lasts 176 days - two of the planet's years.

So far the only space probes to get a close look at Mercury are Mariner 10 in the mid-1970's, and MESSENGER itself as it has passed the planet on previous flybys.

MESSENGER will address several questions. One is why the planet is so dense. David Blewett, senior staff scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, said it's an important question because Mercury would offer clues as to how the other planets formed as well.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/108180/20110202/first-probe-to-orbit-mercury-will-answer-big-questions.htm

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To me this stuff is pretty amazing.

Something just seems mad about having some device off in the universe where we can't possibly get to receiving commands from operators on the Earth to retrieve information for us to better understand things.

Makes the world seem a much smaller place in the grand scheme of things, and yet we still can't get over all our bickering and arguing

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mercury is literally the coffee shop downstairs from you even in intra-galactic terms, it's close. our technology and faith in our abilities is what's lacking. we should be well beyond this point by now. but thanks for the reminder Matias, i still cream the old pants a little when i think of our space efforts, in hope that i will live long enough to watch people walking on Mars (while drinking beer and smoking, i mean me watching on TV, not the folks walking on Mars, well you get my point).

MESSENGER is one more example of the under-funding of our collective space efforts. what should have been accomplished in the late 60's is still a marvel nowadays. but it is a cool name, i love the NASA/ESA naming scheme. MAVEN heh heh, another classic.

EDIT: by intra-galactic i mean were you to think of the galaxy as your country, Mercury would be the downstairs coffee shop in terms of distance.

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