Comments on: Clair de Mercury

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:14:17 +0000

One adjective for Hermes is “hermetic”, as in hermetically sealed, so the stem is “hermet-” and you get “hermetology” and “hermetography”. If reptiles lived there, people that study them would be hermetological herpetologists.

By: dcsohl

dcsohl — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:39:31 +0000

Shouldn’t it be “click to enhermenate”?

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 07:45:15 +0000

@ ^ Infinite123Lifer : Mercury – either planet or the element would make a pretty tough “canvas” for artists to work on!

One day in the future maybe Mercury will see human visitors and colonists make art there but it won’t be for a long while especially at the rate we’re going. (Or rather not going.)

By: Infinite123Lifer

Infinite123Lifer — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 20:58:23 +0000

There is indeed a GiganEnormAsaurusRex piece of art on Mercury. It is in the form of a Sun. How peculiar. How spectacular. Its like a charcoal sketching on the grandest canvas.

By: BruceJ

BruceJ — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:00:42 +0000

Come now, we ALL know why Tycho has rays http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/ and it’s not got anything to do with ejecta

By: Ganzy

Ganzy — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:14:17 +0000

Man, Mercury looks baked. Shallow looking craters in comparison to moon.

By: DrFlimmer

DrFlimmer — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:40:13 +0000

That must be actually the northern or southern geographical pole, where the planet is penetrated by the stick that keeps it on track while rushing through space.

By: Grizzly

Grizzly — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:03:19 +0000

“Claire de lune” is a composition by Debussy.
“Claire de Moon” is not.
So why “Claire de Mercury”, would it not be “Claire de Mercure”?

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:56:09 +0000

I love how features on Mercury are named after artists and philosophers. It gives the Mercurian geography (Merceography? Hermeoraphy?) such a romantic flair.
Nothing wrong with giving scientists their due, but it’s nice that the humanities get represented, too

By: Michael Swanson

Michael Swanson — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:51:53 +0000

Phil, please. Post as many pictures of Mercury as you like. We don’t mind.

By: chris j.

chris j. — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:56:40 +0000

i can’t help noticing that the rays are not all in straight lines from the crater. i can’t tell if the rays are bisected by scarps, or if there is some other obvious geological (hermelogical?) explanation.

oh yeah, and “haphaestenate” refers to the wrong naked greek dude. a better neologism would be hermenate, or perhaps hermesenate.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:45:13 +0000

@ ^ RwFlynn : Well I’m not sure but its quite possible that at the end of the MESSENGER mission they’ll deliberately crash the spaceprobe into the surface to get some final close ups & go out with a BANG!

Of course, there won’t be a spacecraft orbiting the planet then to view the resultant explosion and crater.

If folks are interested, there’s a good Mercury clip here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-doT9gNsI8

which is one of my youtube faves.

Plus here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPprOO2u1gk

which is another too.

Meanwhile in other news (going a bit off topic, sorry) there’s this re-evaluation :

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-30/nasa-revises-down-asteroid-count/3193350

of the number of asteroids roaming the inner surface and threatening to make craters on the inner planets, incl. one’s like Debussy on Mercury. The numbers quoted seem rather implausibly precise for such estimates but its interesting news Death-from-the-skies~wise.

BA, can I please put in a request if I may for your thoughts on that, & also your views on the Chinese space station launch & the new NASA Space Launch System?

By: RwFlynn

RwFlynn — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:31:13 +0000

This makes me wonder if we’ll ever get to observe one of these impacts. Do we know of any that might possibly happen at some point?

By: UmTutSut

UmTutSut — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:57:54 +0000

Any theory why the interior fill of the crater looks so much brighter than the ejecta blanket and rays?

By: Larian LeQuella

Larian LeQuella — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:56:41 +0000

I notice several other younger craters in that photo (lower center, upper left, etc.). Are they secondary impacts from ejecta, or maybe smaller impactors that were accompanying the main impactor? Any thoughts on that?

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:45:37 +0000

Looks like a giant space jellyfish made a very hard landing!