messenger spacecraft – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Ancient volcanic explosions shed light on Mercury’s origins

By Guest PostApril 22, 2014Sciencebrown university, creativity in music, data, david william hearn, garrett weyenberg, mercury, messenger spacecraft, mount st helens, NASA, origin, rheinzufluss, sayo art, staffpad, tropische parasiten

Mercury was long thought to be lacking volatile compounds that cause explosive volcanism. That view started to change when the MESSENGER spacecraft returned pictures of pyroclastic deposits — the telltale signature of volcanic explosions. Now more detailed data from MESSENGER shows that volcanoes exploded on Mercury for a substantial portion of the planet’s history. The findings suggest Mercury not only had volatiles but held on to them for longer than scientists had expected.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The surface of Mercury crackled with volcanic explosions for extended periods of the planet’s history, according to a new analysis led by researchers at Brown University. The findings are surprising considering Mercury wasn’t supposed to have explosive volcanism in the first place, and they could have implications for understanding how Mercury formed. (more…)

UCLA Researchers Find Evidence for Water Ice Deposits and Organic Material on Mercury

By Guest PostNovember 30, 2012Sciencedark deposit, dark organics, david lawrence, david paige, greg neumann, ice on mercury, jet propulsion laboratory, life, matthew siegler, mercury, mercury laser altimeter, messenger spacecraft, mla, mystery, NASA, natural freezers, north pole, pluto, polar crater, professional ice finder, radar, solar system, temperature map, thermal model, ucla, water ice

Planetary scientists have identified water ice and unusually dark deposits within permanently shadowed areas at Mercury’s north pole.

Using data collected by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, a team from UCLA crafted the first accurate thermal model of the solar system’s innermost planet, successfully pinpointing the extremely cold regions where ice has been found on or below the surface.

The researchers say the newly discovered black deposits are a thin crust of residual organic material brought to the planet over the past several million years through impacts by water-rich asteroids and comets. (more…)

Listen to Solar Storm Activity in New Sonification Video

By Guest PostMarch 15, 2012Scienceaudio waveform, carbon atom, data mining, geiger counter, hertz, high energy particle, jim raines, mercury, messenger spacecraft, NASA, radiation detector, robert alexander, solar storm, sonification, sound, soundtrack, spacecraft, sun, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— What does a solar storm sound like? To get an idea, a University of Michigan researcher has created a “sonification” of measurements from two spacecraft during the most recent storm. Take a listen in this video.

The researcher who created it is Robert Alexander, a University of Michigan design science doctoral student. Alexander is a composer with a NASA fellowship to study how representing information as sound could aid in data mining. (more…)

Extreme Space Weather at Mercury Blasts the Planet’s Poles

By Guest PostOctober 4, 2011Scienceatmosphere, aurora borealis, charged particles, earth, exosphere, fast imaging plasma spectrometer, fips, fundamental science about the sun, jim raines, magnetosphere, mercury, messenger spacecraft, NASA, oxygen particles, polar regions, sodium, solar system, solar wind sandblasts, space environment, squall of hot plasma, surface of planet mercury, thomas zurbuchen, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— The solar wind sandblasts the surface of planet Mercury at its poles, according to new data from a University of Michigan instrument on board NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft.

The sodium and oxygen particles the blistering solar wind kicks up are the primary components of Mercury’s wispy atmosphere, or “exosphere,” the new findings assert. Through interacting with the solar wind, they become charged in a mechanism that’s similar to the one that generates the Aurora Borealis on Earth. (more…)

Tag Archives: messenger spacecraft

Ancient volcanic explosions shed light on Mercury’s origins

UCLA Researchers Find Evidence for Water Ice Deposits and Organic Material on Mercury

Listen to Solar Storm Activity in New Sonification Video

Extreme Space Weather at Mercury Blasts the Planet’s Poles