tangent4ronpaul
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- May 11, 2007
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http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/nasa-closest-planet-sun-mercury-harbors-ice-17839978
Just in time for Christmas, scientists have confirmed a vast amount of ice at the north pole — on Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.
The findings are from NASA's Mercury-orbiting probe, Messenger, and the subject of three scientific papers released Thursday by the journal Science.
The frozen water is located in regions of Mercury's north pole that always are in shadows, essentially impact craters. It's believed the south pole harbors ice as well, though there are no hard data to support it. Messenger orbits much closer to the north pole than the south.
"If you add it all up, you have on the order of 100 billion to 1 trillion metric tons of ice," said David Lawrence of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. "The uncertainty on that number is just how deep it goes."
The ice is thought to be at least 1½ feet deep — and possibly as much as 65 feet deep.
There's enough polar ice at Mercury, in fact, to bury an area the size of Washington, D.C., by two to 2½ miles deep, said Lawrence, the lead author of one of the papers.
"These are very exciting results," he added at a news conference.
(continued at link)
Temperature on the Surface of Mercury
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/OlesyaNisanov.shtml
"This slow rate, combined with mercury's nearness to the sun, causes a daytime temperature of more than 400 °C. In the nightime, heat radiates away quickly and the temperature may be as low as -200 °C"
"The temperature on mercury gets very hot, at times it reaches 660 degrees farenheit. That is enough to melt some metals."
"From the night, Mercury's surface temperature changes 1,130 °F (630 °C), more than any other planet or moon in the solar system. Just before sunrise on a typical day on Mercury the temperature is -300 °F (-180 °C). By midmorning the temperature rises to 80 °F (27 °C). At noontime, 22 Earth days since the sun rise, it has climbed to 765 °F (407 °C). In the early afternoon the temperature reaches a high of 800 °F (427 °C), hot enough to melt zinc and tin."
"The temperature at midday is over 400 °C (750 °F)"
"The barren, rocky surface is blasted by solar radiation, which raises its temperature to above 840 °F (450 °C) at noon on the equator when the planet is nearest the Sun …. At night the surface temperature plumets to below -290 °F (-180 °C)!"
-t
Just in time for Christmas, scientists have confirmed a vast amount of ice at the north pole — on Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.
The findings are from NASA's Mercury-orbiting probe, Messenger, and the subject of three scientific papers released Thursday by the journal Science.
The frozen water is located in regions of Mercury's north pole that always are in shadows, essentially impact craters. It's believed the south pole harbors ice as well, though there are no hard data to support it. Messenger orbits much closer to the north pole than the south.
"If you add it all up, you have on the order of 100 billion to 1 trillion metric tons of ice," said David Lawrence of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. "The uncertainty on that number is just how deep it goes."
The ice is thought to be at least 1½ feet deep — and possibly as much as 65 feet deep.
There's enough polar ice at Mercury, in fact, to bury an area the size of Washington, D.C., by two to 2½ miles deep, said Lawrence, the lead author of one of the papers.
"These are very exciting results," he added at a news conference.
(continued at link)
Temperature on the Surface of Mercury
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/OlesyaNisanov.shtml
"This slow rate, combined with mercury's nearness to the sun, causes a daytime temperature of more than 400 °C. In the nightime, heat radiates away quickly and the temperature may be as low as -200 °C"
"The temperature on mercury gets very hot, at times it reaches 660 degrees farenheit. That is enough to melt some metals."
"From the night, Mercury's surface temperature changes 1,130 °F (630 °C), more than any other planet or moon in the solar system. Just before sunrise on a typical day on Mercury the temperature is -300 °F (-180 °C). By midmorning the temperature rises to 80 °F (27 °C). At noontime, 22 Earth days since the sun rise, it has climbed to 765 °F (407 °C). In the early afternoon the temperature reaches a high of 800 °F (427 °C), hot enough to melt zinc and tin."
"The temperature at midday is over 400 °C (750 °F)"
"The barren, rocky surface is blasted by solar radiation, which raises its temperature to above 840 °F (450 °C) at noon on the equator when the planet is nearest the Sun …. At night the surface temperature plumets to below -290 °F (-180 °C)!"
-t
