Comments on: Europe to Mercury

By: Sorting Out Science » Blog Archive » Carnival of Space, Week 38 — The Adventures of Shorty Barlow, Private Eye

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:48:07 +0000

[...] that we just hadn’t seen before, even up close. I’ve heard that now some Europeans even want in on the action. Not that it’s any of my business, but the more the merrier, if you ask [...]

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:05:14 +0000

Yeah, what Barton Paul Levenson said.

Plus, also, some good background on Mercury here:
http://www.nineplanets.org/mercury.html

By: Barton Paul Levenson

Barton Paul Levenson — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:48:35 +0000

Guys, Mercury IS tidally locked. It’s just that because of the high eccentricity of its orbit, it’s a 3:2 lock instead of a 1:1 lock. A planet the size of Mercury, other things being equal, should spin in somewhere between 10 and 30 hours.

By: Podblack

Podblack — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 02:34:07 +0000

Well, it’s certainly inspired some poetic responses too:
http://digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com/2008/01/dueling-destinies.html

By: Mark Martin

Mark Martin — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:06:59 +0000

jest,

It’s interesting you should bring that up. Some radar studies have returned data consistent with the presence of water, frozen in the basins of Mercury’s polar craters, just as on the Moon.

Crux,

Mercury is now known not to be tidally locked. It does have an interesting resonance between its day and its year, exactly 1.5 days per year.

By: Crux Australis

Crux Australis — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:02:01 +0000

I seem to remember seeing in a documentary with Heather Cooper that for years astronomers thought that Mercury was tidally locked to the Sun, but in fact that turned out not to be true. Which is it?

By: jest

jest — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:18:36 +0000

I’m thinking that Canada is just an easy target for those who can’t find it on a map, and to them “it might as well BE Mercury.”

Fortunately I can assure you that, looking outside right now, I don’t live on Mercury. I’m doubtful Mercury has any deposits of snow at any latitude on the surface. Er, that we know of, anyway. Our Solar System has revealed to us some strange things before.