Real images of what nasa discovered on Mercury From what the latest fly-by of the planet
shows, to some of the more base insights about the planet, and more! join us as we reveal
to you Real images of what nasa discovered on Mercury!
Let's start out with some of the more recent news from Mercury, shall we?
On October 1, 2021, the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA) BepiColombo spacecraft successfully performed its first flyby of the solar system’s
innermost planet, Mercury.
The flyby is the first in a set of six such events BepiColombo will complete before entering
orbit around Mercury in late 2025.
The three monitoring cameras onboard BepiColombo’s Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) captured images
of the planet for four hours beginning approximately five minutes after the closest approach.
While this may not seem as vital given that the satellite is going to be in orbit around
Mercury in 2025, these flybys are needed because one the orbit is had, some areas of Mercury
will not be visible to the craft.
So thus these flybys are the best way of getting a look at some spots of Mercury, like with
certain impact craters, in order to study them further.
“The flyby was flawless from the spacecraft point of view, and it’s incredible to finally
see our target planet,” said Elsa Montagnon, Spacecraft Operations Manager for BepiColombo.
As the flyby progressed, several instruments onboard BepiColombo’s modules simultaneously
collected data on Mercury and its surrounding environment.
“It may have been a fleeting flyby, but for some of BepiColombo’s instruments, it
marked the beginning of their science data collection and a chance to really start preparing
for the main mission,” says Johannes Benkhoff, BepiColombo project scientist at ESA.
“These flybys also offer the chance to sample regions around Mercury that will not be accessible
once we’re in orbit.”
During the flyby, the PHEBUS ultraviolet spectrometer on BepiColombo’s Mercury Planet Orbiter
(MPO) module collected data on Mercury’s exosphere — an extremely thin, low-density
atmosphere.
Currently, the exosphere is thought to exist due to either solar wind or surface material.
PHEBUS observed the region for an hour.
After BepiColombo exited from the shadow of Mercury, PHEBUS recorded sharp peaks of hydrogen
and calcium following closest approach.
These two elements are thought to be common in Mercury’s exosphere.
What’s more, the Mercury Gamma-ray and Neutron Spectrometer (MGNS) instrument, also located
on the MPO, detected bright fluxes of neutron and gamma rays in the exosphere — phenomena
often produced by galactic cosmic rays interacting with the uppermost surface layers of a planet.
Additionally, these emissions could provide insight into the composition of the surface
of Mercury.
This is good because while we have had craft go by and scan the plan in their own way via
sensors and pictures, we haven't landed anything on Mercury so its surface is not as detailed
as we want it to be.
Obviously once the satellite takes orbit around 2025 it'll go into more detail and do its
best to further elaborate on what it's been sensing in the exosphere and on the planet
itself.
But until then, at least we have some looks at the planet to start making inferences on.
Due to Mercury’s close proximity to the Sun, one might expect the planet to be often
blasted with solar wind that is ejected from the Sun’s corona.
However, Mercury’s magnetic field, like Earth, helps shield the planet from the full
force of coronal ejections.
Until BepiColombo’s flyby, only the northern hemisphere had been magnetically surveyed
by a spacecraft, leaving scientists without an answer to how the planet’s magnetic field
and solar wind interacted at Mercury’s southern hemisphere.
During BepiColombo’s flyby, sensors located on the spacecraft’s magnetometer boom recorded
data on Mercury’s magnetic field and solar wind as the craft zipped past the planet’s
southern hemisphere.
“That makes this flyby particularly interesting, as it is the first time that data from the
planet’s southern hemisphere close to the surface is available – even if it is just
a small sample,” said Daniel Heyner from TU Braunschweig in Germany, MPO magnetometer
researcher group lead.
BepiColombo teams took the magnetometer data and converted it into a sound audible to the
human ear.
The audio captures the changes in the intensity of the magnetic field and solar wind as well
as the moment BepiColombo crossed the magnetosheath — the border region around Mercury where
the planet’s magnetosphere and solar wind interact in a highly turbulent way.
This only makes the eventual entry into orbit all the more desirable.
Because once the craft is locked in orbit, it'll not just be able to examine the magnetosphere,
but also be able to go and examine the actual interior of the planet and see how that is
all going.
Because wouldn't that be a twist is there was something truly shocking going on inside
of Mercury and we just didn't know it yet?
We can't say it's not a possibility because we honestly don't know about its interior.
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And now, back to Mercury!
BepiColombo’s Italian Spring Accelerometer (ISA) instrument, located on the MPO module,
recorded the spacecraft’s accelerations as Mercury’s gravitational pull tugged on
the craft.
The ISA also recorded the temperature change BepiColombo experienced as it entered and
exited the shadow of Mercury.
These measurements are similar to those taken by the ISA in August as the mission performed
its second Venus flyby.
Like the magnetometer data, the BepiColombo team was able to translate the ISA data into
an audio file.
“On the acceleration plots that were appearing on our screens, we could see the tidal effects
of Mercury on the BepiColombo structure, the drop of the solar radiation pressure during
the transit in the shadow of the planet, and the movement of the center of mass of the
spacecraft due to flexing of the large solar arrays,” says Carmelo Magnafico of the Italian
National Institute for Astrophysics.
In orbit, the ISA will support a study of Mercury’s interior structure and will test
Einstein’s theory of General Relativity with great accuracy.
The instrument will also measure Mercury’s center of mass as it completes its 88-day
orbit around the Sun.
Additionally, the ISA will be used to provide accurate details on the orbit of the MPO component
of the mission.
So as you can see, a single flyby was able to get a LOT of information for a lot of people.
So when is the next flyby for the craft going to happen?
Sadly, that won't be until the middle of 2022.
But, if it's even half as good and successful as the first flyby, then there's a lot more
data to be had here, and that could further expand what we already know about Mercury.
And needless to say, the team are excited about what will happen next:
"We're really looking forward to seeing the first results from measurements taken so close
to Mercury's surface," said Johannes Benkhoff, ESA's BepiColombo project scientist, in a
statement.
"When I started working as project scientist on BepiColombo in January 2008, NASA's Messenger
mission had its first flyby at Mercury.
Now it's our turn.
It's a fantastic feeling!"
A fantastic feeling indeed for those involved in the project.
As it shows how far we've come in regards to both observing and recording things about
Mercury.
The earliest known recorded observations of Mercury are from the Mul.Apin tablets.
These observations were most likely made by an Assyrian astronomer around the 14th century
BC.
The cuneiform name used to designate Mercury on the Mul.Apin tablets is translated as "the
jumping planet".
Babylonian records of Mercury date back to the 1st millennium BC.
The Babylonians called the planet Nabu after the messenger to the gods in their mythology.
Which is ironic because Mercury is the name of the messenger God to the Roman pantheon.
Many other civilizations found out about Mercury in their own ways, including the ancient Greeks,
Romans, Chinese, and even the Maya!
The first telescopic observations of Mercury were made by Galileo in the early 17th century.
Although he observed phases when he looked at Venus, his telescope was not powerful enough
to see the phases of Mercury.
In 1631, Pierre Gassendi made the first telescopic observations of the transit of a planet across
the Sun when he saw a transit of Mercury predicted by Johannes Kepler.
In 1639, Giovanni Zupi used a telescope to discover that the planet had orbital phases
similar to Venus and the Moon.
The observation demonstrated conclusively that Mercury orbited around the Sun.
In the 1880s, Giovanni Schiaparelli mapped the planet more accurately and even perfectly
detailed its orbital time around the sun.
As more time went on, more time was devoted to studying Mercury, including in the 1970's
when NASA launched the first craft to Mercury via the Mariner 10.
After that came the Messenger, and then the craft we just talked about, so we've been
trying to observe Mercury for some time as you can see.
Mercury is a very interesting planet in a whole host of ways, not the least of which
is because of the fact that it is indeed the closest planet to the sun.
Because of this, it has certain...perks, as well as disadvantages.
First and foremost, it's the closest planet to the sun, which means that it is indeed
the hottest planet because it's only 29 million miles from the sun at its closest.
Now yes, I'm sure that this SEEMS like a long distance, but when you're talking about the
sun?
A sun that is 860,000 miles in diameter?
That's not as far as you think.
And because of that distance, a lot of things have happened to Mercury over the years.
For example, one look at old or new shots of Mercury and you'll see that not only is
it barren, it's absolutely peppered with craters from objects crashing into it over the course
of many years.
There are some who even liken it to our own moon because of how the craters look and how
numerous they are.
The other big thing about Mercury is that it's REALLY hot there, and cold there as well,
so any notions of trying to colonize it or finding signs of life there from the past
(like we're trying to do with Venus) is literally slim to none.
Not impossible based on some scientists measurements, but slim.
The surface temperature of Mercury ranges from 100 to 700 K (−173 to 427 °C; −280
to 800 °F) at the most extreme places.
The irony though is that while life may not live there, many scientists believe that water
does have a chance of being there.
How is that possible?
There are spots in craters that are never exposed to sunlight, and thus there could
be ice water on Mercury waiting to be found.
Perhaps but a certain satellite that'll be orbiting the planet in a few years...?
Regardless, what's been going on with Mercury over the last few decades is that we've been
getting closer and closer to it in order to figure out the 'finer details' of the planet.
Though it may be the smallest planet in our solar system (sorry Pluto!), it's still full
of mysteries and questions that need to be answered.
And if we can't go there personally, we'll settle for machines going and doing the work
for us.
Whatever it takes to get answers, right?
Thanks for watching, everyone!
What did you think of this look at Mercury and all the things that make is special in
one form or another?
Do you think that we've learned all we really can from Mercury based on all the probe findings?
Or do you think that there's more discoveries to come?
Let us know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe and we'll see you next time on
the channel!