William Atkins
Friday, 01 May 2009 21:10
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 4
A second flyby by the NASA MESSENGER spacecraft of the planet Mercury has found additional pieces of the puzzle to help scientists learn more about the planet. The October 5, 2008 flyby saw 30% of a very dynamic planet that had never before been seen by a probe from Earth.
So far, the spacecraft has imaged about 90% of the surface area of Mercury.
MESSENGER, a shortened form for
MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, is not a stranger to the planet Mercury. It made its first flyby back in January 14, 2008.
The April 30, 2009 NASA article
MESSENGER spacecraft reveals a very dynamic planet Mercury states, “
A NASA spacecraft gliding over the surface of Mercury has revealed that the planet's atmosphere, the interaction of its surrounding magnetic field with the solar wind, and its geological past display greater levels of activity than scientists first suspected.”
It added,
“The probe also discovered a previously unknown large impact basin about 430 miles in diameter -- equal to the distance between Washington and Boston.”
With respect to the magnetosphere (a highly magnetized region around some astronomical objects), Dr. Karl-Heinz Glassmeier (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany) writes in the May 1, 2009
Science magazine article
Magnetic Twisters on Mercury, that, “
The recent flybys of the MESSENGER spacecraft confirm the existence of the Hermean magnetosphere, discovered 35 years ago by the Mariner 10 mission.”
The Hermean magnetosphere is the name of the magnetosphere of Mercury.
Dr. Glassmeier adds,
“This magnetosphere is rather small, with the magnetopause (the boundary between the interplanetary medium and the magnetospheric plasma) located as close as 1700 km [kilometers] above the planet surface. Not much is known about the structure and dynamics of the Hermean magnetosphere, and it is here where the observations by MESSENGER are shedding new light.”
Page two adds more about magnetosphere of Mercury.
