Text

Mercury's Interior, Surface, and Surrounding Environment

---

This SpringerBrief details the MESSENGER Mission, the findings of which present challenges to widely held conventional views and remaining mysteries surrounding the planet. The work answers the question of why Mercury is so dense, and the implications from geochemical data on its planetary formation. It summarizes imaging and compositional data from the terrestrial planet surface processes and explains the geologic history of Mercury. It also discusses the lack of southern hemisphere coverage.

Our understanding of the planet Mercury has been in a transitional phase over the decades since Mariner 10. The influx of new data from the NASA MESSENGER Mission since it was inserted into the orbit of Mercury in March of 2011 has greatly accelerated that shift. The combined compositional data of relatively high volatiles (S, K), relatively low refractories (Al, Ca), and low crustal iron, combined with an active, partially molten iron rich core, has major implications for Mercury and Solar System formation. From a scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, this presents a comprehensive overview of the discoveries from the ten-year MESSENGER mission.

---

Availability

No copy data

Detail Information

Series Title

SpringerBriefs in Astronomy

Call Number

-

Publisher

: ., 2015

Collation

VIII, 97

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

978-1-4939-2243-7

Classification

NONE

Content Type

text

Media Type

computer

Carrier Type

online resource

Edition

1

Subject(s)

Geographical Information System
Space Physics,
Planetary Science,

Specific Detail Info

-

Statement of Responsibility

Pamela Elizabeth Clark

Other Information

Cataloger

SARA

Source

-

Other version/related

File Attachment

Comments

---

You must be logged in to post a comment