Mercury
From Conservapedia
| Mercury | |
|---|---|
 Reprocessed Mariner 10 data was used to produce this image of Mercury. The smooth band is an area of which no images were taken. | |
| Name of discoverer | Known to ancients |
| Name origin | Roman messenger god and prince of thieves |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Primary | Sun |
| Order from primary | 1 |
| Perihelion | 46,000,000 km (0.307 AU) |
| Aphelion | 70,000,000 km (0.468 AU) |
| Semi-major axis | 57,909,175 km (0.387 AU) |
| Titius-Bode prediction | 0.4 AU |
| Orbital eccentricity | 0.20563069 |
| Sidereal year | 87.96934 da (0.241 a) |
| Synodic year | 115.8776 da (0.317 a) |
| Avg. orbital speed | 47.36 km/s |
| Inclination | 7.00487° to the ecliptic |
| Rotational characteristics | |
| Sidereal day | 58.6462 da |
| Solar day | 175.93868 da |
| Axial tilt | 0° |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Mass | 3.30 * 1023 kg (5.522% earth) |
| Density | 5427 kg/m³ |
| Mean radius | 2439.7 km |
| Surface gravity | 2.78 m/s² (0.283 g) |
| Escape speed | 4.25 km/s |
| Surface area | 75,000,000 km² (14.704% earth) |
| Minimum temperature | 90 K |
| Mean temperature | 452 K |
| Maximum temperature | 700 K |
| Number of moons | None known |
| Composition | Iron, Silicate |
| Color | Reddish |
| Magnetosphere | |
| Magnetic flux density | 0.033 G (3.3 * 10-6 T)[2] |
| Magnetic dipole moment at present | 3.8 * 1019 N-m/T[1] |
| Magnetic dipole moment at creation | 7.5 * 1022 N-m/T[3] |
| Decay time | 812.6 a[4] |
| Half life | 563.3 a[4] |
- This article is about the planet Mercury. For information about the chemical element see Mercury (element).
- For information about the NASA project, see Project Mercury.
Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System, and it is the closest to the Sun. It orbits the Sun in 88 (Earth) days. It rotates on its axis every 58.6 days,[5] which is 3 rotations for every two orbits (called "3:2 resonance"). It can be seen from Earth only at sunrise and sunset.[6]
Mercury is one of the five brightest planets.
Contents |
Ancient History
As with the other planets of the solar system, it was named after after Roman mythology, in this case the messenger god Mercury who is known as Hermes in Greek.
In the pre-Christian era, the Greeks actually gave the planet two different names, as it was believed to be two different objects. The ancients did not realize that it could alternately appear on one side of the Sun and then the other. Mercury was called Hermes when in the evening sky, but was known as Apollo when it appeared in the morning. It is said that Pythagoras, about the fifth century B.C., pointed out that they were one and the same.[6]
Composition
Mercury's core is made of molten metal, much like the Earth's. The molten Iron core generates the planet's magnetic field.
Orbital oddities
Mercury has a very elliptical orbit. At its farthest distance from the Sun, it is nearly 50% farther than at its nearest distance to the Sun. [7]
The precession of Mercury's eccentric orbit was detectable to 19th century astronomers.[8][9]
It was the study of this planet's orbit that Albert Einstein used to help confirm the General Theory of Relativity.[10][11] Specifically, Mercury's perihelion precesses by 5600 arc-seconds per century, which is 43 arc-seconds per century more than Newtonian physics alone would predict from the respective masses of Mercury, the Sun, and the other planets. Astronomers of the period hypthesized either an asteroid belt or another planet (which they named Vulcan) inside Mercury's orbit. Einstein's second-order correction to Mercury's orbit accounted exactly for the 43 arc-seconds of precession and obviated the need to look for any unseen asteroids or innermost planet.[12][8][9]
Mercury has more or less no atmosphere, and many craters. [13] It has no known moons.
Magnetic Field
A curiosity of the planet is its magnetic field, which is about 1% that of Earth's. Scientists were perplexed to discover its existence, speculating that planet's outer core consisted of liquid iron. However, because it is relatively small and hot, such an outer core would long ago have expired. That Mercury is so intensely cratered would also suggest that Mercury should long ago have given up its magnetic field because of its extreme apparent age.
Thus, according to current scientific understandings, the existence of Mercury's magnetic field presents a serious theoretical problem for uniformitarian models of the creation of the Solar System.[14][15] The problem of Mercury's magnetic field is more acute when one considers that Mars, which is slightly larger than Mercury and spins much faster, has a much weaker magnetic field.
Creationist Russell Humphreys has an alternative theory: that planetary magnetic fields do not form by dynamo action, and Mercury's relatively wide and conductive core has preserved its magnetic field. The cores of Mars and Venus are smaller, and thus the magnetic fields have decayed more rapidly.[3] Nevertheless, the decay of Mercury's magnetic field, according to Humphreys, is quite rapid.
Accordingly, in 1984 Humphreys boldly declared:
| “ | Mercury's decay rate is so rapid that some future probe could detect it fairly soon. In 1990 the planet's magnetic moment should be 1.8 percent smaller than its 1975 value.[3] | ” |
In fact, according to Humphreys' extrapolations of the decay time and half-life of the magnetic field of Mercury, the magnetic dipole moment in 2008 should be four percent smaller than that measured in 1975 by Mariner 10. Specifically, this should be (4.5 +/- 0.25) * 1019 N-m/T.
On January 14, 2008, MESSENGER made rendezvous with Mercury and measured its magnetic field. This rocket probe's measurements are consistent with a magnetic dipole moment of (3.8 +/- 0.7) * 1019 N-m/T. This represents a significant decline from the Mariner 10 measurement, because the two measurements differ by more than the sum of their respective tolerances. More to the point, the higher tolerance range of the current measurement lies well within the predicted magnetic dipole moment that Mercury should have at present. If, on the other hand, the true measurement is less than predicted, that would pose an even greater problem for uniformitarian astrophysics, because such a rapid decay would be utterly inconsistent with an age for Mercury of 4.6 billion years. It would present no problem with the Humphreys model, but would suggest that the core conductivity and/or conductive mass of Mercury is less than Humphreys initially supposed.[1]
Gallery
 Mariner 10's first image of Mercury acquired on March 24, 1974 |
 MESSENGER's first flyby of Mercury showing previously unseen surface, January 14, 2008 |
External links
Notes
| The Solar System | ||
| Star | Sol | |
| Planets | Vulcan • Mercury • Venus • Earth • Mars • Jupiter • Saturn • Uranus • Neptune | |
| Dwarf Planets | Ceres • Haumea • Makemake • Pluto • Eris | |
| Asteroid Belt | Major asteroids • C-type asteroids • S-type asteroids • M-type asteroids | |
| Trans-Neptunian Objects | Kuiper Belt • Scattered disk • Oort Cloud • Nemesis | |
| Natural satellites | Moon • Phobos • Deimos • Io • Europa • Ganymede • Callisto • Mimas • Enceladus • Tethys • Dione • Rhea • Titan • Hyperion • Iapetus • Miranda • Ariel • Umbriel • Titania • Oberon • Triton • Nereid • Charon • Nix • Hydra • Dysnomia |
