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Nov 25, 2009, 11:07pm

Polish Culture Forum :: GENERAL DISCUSSION - (Not related to Poland) :: Brain Food :: NASA's probe reveals more Mercury

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Topic: NASA's probe reveals more Mercury (Read 29 times)

Jaga
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NASA's probe reveals more Mercury
« Thread Started on Nov 7, 2009, 6:11am »

I could not find any website which would lead me to more than 1-2 photos from the newest discovery

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1104/p02s10-usgn.html

NASA's Mercury mission spacecraft, Messenger, is revolutionizing humanity's view of the first rock from the sun. And its primary science mission hasn't even started yet.

During its third and final flyby of Mercury, NASA's Messenger has found minerals on the planet's surface that current models say shouldn't be there in such abundance. And it appears that the planet was volcanically active – explosively so – for far longer than current ideas about its geological history suggest.

The flyby took place Sept. 29. Mission scientists unveiled highlights from the flyby during a press briefing Tuesday afternoon.

Piecing together Mercury's story "is like reading a fine mystery novel by Dorothy Sayers or Agatha Christie," says Sean Solomon, the mission's lead scientist and a researcher at the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. The effort comes complete with clues that point to the story's denouement, as well as red herrings to throw a reader off track.

Mercury is the smallest of the solar system's eight planets. And it's the oddest among the rocky planets. Its iron core comprises up to 70 percent of the planet's mass, making it the most dense planet in the solar system after Earth.

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Jaga PolishSite
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sciwriter
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Re: NASA's probe reveals more Mercury
« Reply #1 on Nov 9, 2009, 6:01pm »

Jaga, That should lead to more info about the Sun. Thanks. Carl

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Bob S
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Re: NASA's probe reveals more Mercury
« Reply #2 on Nov 13, 2009, 1:11pm »

Thanks for the info Jaga. I read about this in one of my mags. Further info: The flyby was done by the MESSENGER probe (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging).
In another artical. Scientists have discovered a weird exo-planet. The planet WASP-17b orbits it's parent star in direction opposite to that of the parent star. Another exo-planet is WASP 18b. WASP-18b is a hot Jupiiter and has a mass that is 10 times that of Jupiter and orbits it's parent star at about 2.2km away.
BTW. Has anyone ever heard of Caty Pilachowski (Kirkwood Chair in Astronomy at Indiana University?

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