Skinakas Basin on Mercury.

[3488]

Evidence of an even larger impact basin on Mercury larger then the Caloris Basin?<br /><br />Inner ring approx 1,600 KM across & outer ring approx 2,300 KM.<br /><br />Lucky Imaging of Mercury.<br /><br />Skinakas Basin & description. <br /><br />Icarus extract.<br /><br />Looks like MESSENGER should see the outer rim during the January 2008 encounter & <br />most of the rest during the October 2008 encounter.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[Aetius]

Thanks again, Andrew!

 

[3488]

You are more than welcome aetius.<br /><br />I find this sort of thing fascinating too. Mercury has really been a real punch bag.<br /><br />I supose it is expected as Mercury is close to the Sun & that the Sun will draw comets & asteroids<br />in, thus Mercury is not too far from the focal point.<br /><br />Perhaps re evaluation of Mariner 10 imagery might well find the antipodal point of <br />Skinakas Basin & see if hilly terrain had formed in much the same way as the Weird Terrain<br />that is antipodal to the Caloris Basin?<br /><br />Any way, in January 2008, we get to see part of Skinakas Basin with the first MESSENGER<br />encounter. In October 2008 we get to see the rest of it with MESSENGER, so not too<br />long to wait.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[ashish27]

Mercury also catches my fancy. I think it is a vantage point to learn more about the science of the Sun.

 

[3488]

Could you imagine it, a dedicated Solar Observatory on Mercury?<br /><br />Problem is, the nights on Mercury are long & very cold, about -186 C, roughly the same as Titan.<br /><br />The temperature swings are enourmous. In early Mercurian afternoon on the equator<br />the temperature reaches 427 C / 700 K, just before dawn, that same location - 186 C / 87 K.<br /><br />So a 613 C / K difference.<br /><br />But the days are very long too. IIRC the period between sunrise & <br />sunset is about 176 days. The night period will be the same.<br /><br />Mercury is compelling in other ways too. We have seen only 45% in detail, courtesy of Mariner 10.<br /><br />Mercury is very dense, has a magnetosphere, craters & basins, but also faulting & evidence<br />of volcanic activity (probably now extinct, but who knows). Mercury is a real odd ball<br />in the inner solar system.<br /><br />Recently evidnece has surfaced for the Skinakas Basin, which was on the night side of <br />Mercury during the Mariner 10 encounters. One half of the Caloris Basin was shown in great detail,<br />& with MESSENGER, we will finally <br />see the other half & see Caloris Basin in its entirety.<br /><br />A great shame that the lander part of BepiColombo was cancelled by the ESA. <br /><br />Shame more so that JAXA or NASA could not have stepped in.<br />Mercury remains the only major inner solar system object to not be landed upon & we<br />not to have surface imagery / data, etc.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>