http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/09/29/space-probe-soon-to-study-mercurys-comet-like-tail/ 80beats is DISCOVER's news aggregator, weaving together the choicest tidbits from the best articles covering the day\'s most compelling topics. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:55:37 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/09/29/space-probe-soon-to-study-mercurys-comet-like-tail/comment-page-1/#comment-53210 YouRang Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:43:56 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/?p=3683#comment-53210 I've never seen this issue addressed: How like the moon is Mercury with regard to craters at the poles? That is, could there be habitable places in the craters of Mercury at the poles? (In particular can there be H2O at the poles in the craters?) Of course, no one has looked for H2O at the poles yet; but is it a reasonable search and does the comet tail of Mercury have anything to say about the question? And btw, it isn't really Mercury's gravity that puts a brake on the probe; it's Mercury's angular momentum. The gravity is merely the couple for the 2 angular momenta. I’ve never seen this issue addressed: How like the moon is Mercury with regard to craters at the poles? That is, could there be habitable places in the craters of Mercury at the poles? (In particular can there be H2O at the poles in the craters?) Of course, no one has looked for H2O at the poles yet; but is it a reasonable search and does the comet tail of Mercury have anything to say about the question?
And btw, it isn’t really Mercury’s gravity that puts a brake on the probe; it’s Mercury’s angular momentum. The gravity is merely the couple for the 2 angular momenta.

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