Transcript mercury & venus - OptionsHighSchool

MERCURY & VENUS
Why does Mercury show a much
wider range of temperatures than
the Earth does?
• Mercury shows a wider range of
temperatures because of how close it
is to the sun and the fact it has no
atmosphere
• Its more hot because of the distance
• The only reason it is colder is all the
heat escapes due to the fact there is
no atmosphere.
What does the surface of Mercury
tell us about the history of the
planet?
• The surface of Mercury consists of cratered terrain and
smooth plains and many deep craters similar to those on
the moon.
•
This tells us that mercury has had a violent past and that
it is somewhat similar to our moon and earth
•
Another thing it tells us about its history is it will tell us
what we can expect the planet to be made of?
Why is Mercury so dense?
• The scientists say that it is so
dense because of when it was
forming it was formed out of
other materials that made it so
dense
Why is the atmosphere of Venus
so much hotter and thicker than
that of the Earth?
• The reason it is thicker and
hotter is the sulfuric acid clouds
that surround the planet and the
amount of CO2 and Nitrogen in
the atmosphere
What does the surface of Venus
tell us about the internal activity
of Venus and of the Earth?
• A younger Venus is believed to have possessed Earth like
oceans but these evaporated as the temperature rose.
Venus's surface is a dusty dry deserts cape with many
slab like rocks periodically refreshed by volcanoes.
• The internal activity of Venus could be similar because
of the fact it has volcanoes that erupt and for that to
happen you need a central area of convection currents
and molten rock like earth
If Venus and the Earth began to evolve under
similar conditions, what accounts for the
large differences that exist today?
• The distance to the sun the
temperature and the
atmosphere
What have NASA and/or other
agencies done to explore both Venus
and Mercury?
• They have built mutiple space
crafts to take pictures and use
certain cameras to see what
the planets are made of and if
they have a atmosphere.