Transcript Presentazione di PowerPoint

The solar sisytem is composed of nine planets:
The mythology of Mercury derives from the
Babylonian times, where Mercury was known as
Nebu, the son of Marduk., the king of the Gods.
Marduk became king by slaying the sea monster
Tiamat and establishing the order in the Universe,
which, until that moment, was messy. Nebu became
then the scribe of the Gods:his job consisted in write
down the laws and the edicts of Marduk and
communicate them to men. Nebu became later the
Greek Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, and then
the Roman Mercury, from which derives the name of
the planet used nowadays. In Roman and Greek
mythology, Mercury (Hermes) was the protector of
thieves, of crooks and travelers.
Some notes about its internal and external structure:
EXTERNAL STRUCTURE:
● Its atmosphere is very thin, made of helium and sodium, with
minimum tracks of other substances. Mercury has a very low
gravitational pull, so it isn’t able to attract enough gasses to
have an atmosphere as the Earth has. The consequence is that
the temperature on the surface varies from -183°C to 427°C.
●INTERNAL STRUCTURE:
●Mercury is the smallest terrestrial
(or inner) planet, so it is made above
all of rocks: Its surface consists in a
thin crust that contains above all
silicates. Under the crust there is the
mantel, that is liquid, very thin and
made of silicates, while the nucleus,
probably made of nickel and iron, is
solid inside and liquid near the
mantel. The surface of the planet is
littered with craters and scars of
impact because of the crash of many
meteorites.
1. Crust = the most external
part of the planet.
2. Mantle = is the part that
surrounds the Nucleus, and
consists of silicates.
3. Nucleus = is the most
internal part of the planet
and it is radioactive.
The period of revolution of Mercury corresponds to 87,9 Earth
days, because of his closeness to the Sun. Mercury is so close to
the Sun that it can be observed only immediately after the sunset
to West and before the sunrise to East.
It has no moons and there isn't water on it.
The gravity on Mercury is 3.7m/s2 (0.38g, that is 0.38
times the gravity of Earth).
Mercury’s surface is very similar in appearance to
that of the Moon, showing extensive mare-like plains
and heavy cratering.
A strange thing of mercury is that craters are named
for artists, musician, painters and authors who have
made outstanding or fundamental contributions to
their field.
NASA have been done two missions on mercury:
• MARINER 10
• MESSENGER
The first spacecraft to visit Mercury was NASA’s Mariner
10 (1974–75).Mariner 10 provided the first close-up images
of Mercury’s surface, which immediately showed its heavily
cratered nature, and revealed many other types of geological
features, such as the giant scarps which were later ascribed
to the effect of the planet shrinking slightly as its iron core
cools. Unfortunately the same face of the planet was lit at
each of Mariner 10’s close approaches. This made
observation of both sides of the planet impossible, and
resulted in the mapping of less than 45% of the planet’s
surface.
A second NASA mission to Mercury, named MESSENGER
, was launched on August 3, 2004. Most of the hemisphere
not imaged by Mariner 10 has been mapped during these flybys. The first orbital image of Mercury was obtained on
March 29, 2011.
Texts of:
WITTKOWSKI KEVIN
VIGNOLA DANIEL
Presentation and animations
of:
SCAVETTA MATTEO
© Copyright All rights reserved
MACRÌ MATTEO