Comments on: The Big Picture: Mercury

By: T.E.L.

T.E.L. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:01:48 +0000

ekb, you’re right: Mariner did do three passes at Mercury.

By: ekb

ekb — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:30:30 +0000

The big picture says Mariner 10 visited Mercury twice… isn’t that a mistake? I thought it was three times.

That’s what you can notice when you’re not obsessed with sex.

By: Torbjörn Larsson, OM

Torbjörn Larsson, OM — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:51:41 +0000

*That’s* why I dunno what you’re talking about

Same here: Templeton does ads? Whutfor … oh, they must not be satisfied with playing ‘science’, being faith based and all.

It’s either that or probability is broken, something which may explain why some here against odds proposes that bloggers don’t have sexuality … eh, “dirty minds”.

[OT, but it looks counter intuitive to define it as "dirty". A simple experiment in brain washing with a good cleaning agent such as alcohol gives that a cleaner mind is "dirtier". ]

By: T.E.L.

T.E.L. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:36:11 +0000

Flying sardines Said:

“If we could somehow use a giant “Trek-style transporter” and switch Mercury for Luna – how long do you reckon it’d take folks to notice? ”

Interestingly enough, this experiment can be done without the transporter. All that’s needed is to offer people photographs of Mercury labeled as “the Moon”, and see how many can tell the difference.

By: llewelly

llewelly — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:13:30 +0000

22. Flying sardines June 10th, 2009 at 12:16 am :

If we could somehow use a giant “Trek-style transporter” and switch Mercury for Luna – how long do you reckon it’d take folks to notice?

Mercury mass: 3.3022 × 10^23 kg (0.055 Earths)

Moon mass: 7.3477 × 10^22 kg (0.0123 Earths)

Since Mercury is about 4.5 times as massive, people living in sight of the ocean would notice pretty quickly. (And when the ‘moon’ rose, there would be a hue and cry from amateur astronomers because Mercury has noticeably larger diameter.)

By: llewelly

llewelly — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:03:00 +0000

Very cool pictures. Carefully examine the upper right of picture number nine, and you will see smoke from one of the Alien factories that makes the Flying Saucers used to Abduct humans and monitor zoonotic diseases humans carry.

By: Mark Hansen

Mark Hansen — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:22:19 +0000

kuhnigget, I like your descriptive style for orbital mechanics. Or to better suit your patois: You done wrote some purty words ’bout that thar probey thang.

By: Plutonium Being From Pluto

Plutonium Being From Pluto — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:28:34 +0000

The BA : Regular readers know I love this little spacecraft

Kinky but I’m afraid with MESSENGER flying round Mercury and the BA stuck here on Earth it is, alas, a doomed romance with you two lovebirds separated forever!
(Yes I too have a dirty mind!)

@ #22 : Or we could also try that experiment with Pluto methinks bringing us Plutoneans into a handy position to mass-drive some rocks down at the IAU HQ! That’ll learn ‘em!

By: Flying sardines

Flying sardines — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:16:25 +0000

Just when I’ve written on another thread that we haven’t had anything on Mercury here for ages what do I see when scrolling down a little? This that’s what! [/blushes.]

Thanks BA & no that’s not sarcastic ..well not entirely!
I do like my Mercury news. Really.

BA : “Mercury and the Moon are very similar in many ways,

If we could somehow use a giant “Trek-style transporter” and switch Mercury for Luna – how long do you reckon it’d take folks to notice?

(Assuming of course we compensate for the gravitational effects w Mercury’s higher mass – & that we made sure we made the teleport switch at a time when nobody was looking! )

By: Stone Age Scientist

Stone Age Scientist — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:28:14 +0000

To Ivan3Man @ 12,

No coffee for you; it’s a cold shower that you need.

Thanks, I’ll take your advice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To John Paradox @ #19

Makes me wonder what you’ll be doing the next six months or so.

Your wondering makes the matter worse. Stop wondering and it will be non-existent.

By: Rob Jase

Rob Jase — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:12:09 +0000

Aha! Notice how autism rates have gone up as this craft neared Mercury, surely this is no coincedence!

By: John Paradox

John Paradox — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:58:25 +0000

9. Stone Age Scientist Says:

I do have to cut down on porn. I’ll put this one down on my next New Year’s Resolution. Thank you.

Makes me wonder what you’ll be doing the next six months or so.

J/P=?

By: Mercurio y la MESSENGER | Blog Avenue

Mercurio y la MESSENGER | Blog Avenue — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:29:55 +0000

[...] Bad Astronomy Blog.) Mercurio en alta resolución, algunos detalles más de la misión.Safari fotográfico por el [...]

By: Mercurio y la MESSENGER : Blogografia

Mercurio y la MESSENGER : Blogografia — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:01:02 +0000

[...] (Vía Bad Astronomy Blog.) [...]

By: Sobre Tecnologia » Mercurio y la MESSENGER

Sobre Tecnologia » Mercurio y la MESSENGER — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:27:20 +0000

[...] (Vía Bad Astronomy Blog.) [...]

By: American Voyager

American Voyager — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:58:54 +0000

I had to laugh at your Tycho comment, Phil. We think alike. My first thoughts before reading your post were, “What a great picture of Copernicus!”. LOL!!

By: AJ

AJ — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:27:05 +0000

@ SMo: expanding ad for what?

Oh, wait, I use Adblock Plus on Firefox. *That’s* why I dunno what you’re talking about, I suppose

and @ Phil: yeah, “fall into orbit” sounds odd coming from you. C’mon, you of all people know how this works!

By: IVAN3MAN

IVAN3MAN — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:03:46 +0000

@ #6. T.E.L.,

Like, er… what brand of coffee do you drink?

@ #9. Stone Age Scientist,

No coffee for you; it’s a cold shower that you need.

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:42:59 +0000

Clicked on the picture, Phil and I must say, those pics are astounding in their clarity and fine detail.

I’m really looking forward to the 2011 insertion. I wonder if we’ll be able to observe pyroclastic flows of lead, since it melts at 600.1 K and max temp on Mercury is around 700 K. What a cool image that would be,,,rivers of molten lead.

Gary 7

By: kikilis

kikilis — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:42:28 +0000

Holy Silversword! Now thats a blast it was…
BTW did ya see the vid of messenger leaving Earth? http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/images/flyby_images/mdis_depart.mpeg

By: Stone Age Scientist

Stone Age Scientist — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:41:25 +0000

Ivan3Man, I’m guilty as well. I was skimming through the comments and thought your line read as “…the messenger will perform a manoeuvre of insertion…”

I do have to cut down on porn. I’ll put this one down on my next New Year’s Resolution. Thank you.

By: kuhnigget

kuhnigget — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:40:05 +0000

It done burn its engines real good so as to park round that big rock down yonder near t’the sun.

By: SMo

SMo — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:37:57 +0000

Lovely picture marred only by the expanding Templeton Foundation ad. Yuck.

By: T.E.L.

T.E.L. — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:33:14 +0000

Will modify its dynamical parameters such that the set of all allowed spacecraft-planet mass-centers will lie upon an ellipse having the spacecraft-planet-Sun mass-center at one focus.

By: IVAN3MAN

IVAN3MAN — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:30:51 +0000

Todd W.:

Sounds kinky.

You, sir, have a dirty mind.