The spacecraft has already imaged over 90% of the surface of the planet Mercury and this time determining the composition of the planet's surface is a primary goal for the spacecraft at this stage of the mission
NASA's Mercury Messenger spacecraft made the third and final flyby of Mercury this week (September 29). The spacecraft passed less than 230 km above the planet's rocky surface to receive a final gravitational boost that will allow the spacecraft to enter orbit around Mercury in 2011.
Determining the surface composition of Mercury is a primary goal for the spacecraft at this stage of the mission. The spacecraft has already imaged over 90% of the surface of Mercury. The spacecraft crew turned on its instruments during the approach to look again at features of interest as well as to reveal more insight about the planet.
The spacecraft studied the mutual activity of the planet Mercury with the interplanetary space around it, and especially as a result of the activity of the Sun. During the approach, special sensors with an extensive scaphoid range and a wide viewing angle were used to track the planet's thin atmosphere and tail.
"Scanning the thin comet-like tail will provide us with clues about the processes that maintain the existence of the atmosphere and the tail," says Noam Eisenberg, the instrument's chief scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. "The spectrometer of the composition of the atmosphere and the surface of the planet Mercury will give us a glimpse of how the distribution of sodium and calcium changes depending on the conditions on the planet. In addition, we focused on the polar regions to make detailed observations and look for additional atmospheric materials."
The findings will be published in the coming weeks.
The spacecraft has completed about three quarters of a journey of about 8 billion kilometers that it will complete until it enters the orbit of the planet Hema. The journey included over 15 orbits around the Sun in addition to passes by Mercury, the spacecraft passed by Earth in August 2005 and by Venus in October 2006 and June 2007.
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I agree with Uri's thanks
And to show respect... this spaceship has cooling units for detectors in the infrared field made by the Ricor company in Kibbutz Ein Harod Ihud
Strengthens Uri
Dear Nahum. I have been enjoying the site for several years. I enjoy the site, I enjoy...
Instead of thanking the people who collect and translate a wide variety of articles in their free time and especially the editor of the site, you react with unnecessary cynicism.
Allow me to repeat the same word several times in the hope that the hint will be clear enough:
Thank you, thank you, and thank you very much to the Hedaan site for a quality and fun Israeli site.
Happy holiday to all of us... to you too Nahum!
If the probe is already so close to Mercury, why does it need another two years to enter orbit around it?
At this point, I will refrain at this point from criticizing the article's flawed proofreading. I only hope that the spectrometer will show us how the distribution of sodium and calcium changes. The main thing is to repeat the same word three times three times three times for luck. And may we all have times of joy.