Mercury | World Tech Today

NASA Messenger probe to impact Mercury on Thursday

Apr 29, 2015 by Karla Fetrow Leave a Comment

NASA’s Messenger Mercury-Orbiting spacecraft is going to take off this week, and the authorities are excited about it. As soon as this spacecraft hits Mercury’s surface, it will add on one more achievement in NASA’s long successful history.

What Lies Ahead:

Messenger is the first aircraft to circle Mercury. It has completed four-year tour of the rocky planet already. It will get out of Orbit’s boundary and enter into Mercury on Thursday. As per the reports, it will travel over 8,750 mph before hitting the Mercury’s surface. The crater is 52 feet wide, but Messenger’s swift pace will get rid of it without any hassle. It comes with a 10 feet solar wingtip to maintain the balance throughout the ride.

Even though Messenger ran out of fuel lately, but the workforce at ground level managed to eke some additional life in the aircraft. They have raised the orbit of Messenger by dipping it into helium gas reserves. Initially, it was not meant to be used as fuel, but with the help of ground level employees helium gas reserves were used to fuel in some extra life in the aircraft.

The ongoing conditions indicate that the end of Messenger is near. The Messenger team declared via Twitter earlier this week that after successful ten years, the spacecraft will stop forever on the surface of Mercury.

As per the reports, it was launched for the first time in August 2004 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. If taken into consideration all the major activities that it was involved throughout these years, Messenger was able to fly past Mercury three times and Venus two times. It entered into orbit around Mercury four years back and has been circling it since then.

The only aircraft other than Messenger to visit Mercury was Mariner 10 of NASA in 1970s.

NASA Messenger Probe to collide with Mercury in 2 Weeks

Apr 17, 2015 by Karla Fetrow Leave a Comment

NASA – The Messenger spacecraft of NASA that was instrumental in discovering ice and other elements on Mercury is to crash the planet in two weeks. The probe is fast running out of its propellant making the crash inevitable.

The Mercury Surface, Geochemistry, Space Environment and Ranging spacecraft from NASA is heading for the collision at the speed of 8750 miles per hour. Unfortunately, the impact will not be visible from earth as the spacecraft is to crash on the side facing away from our planet.

Mission of the Messenger

The Messenger from NASA has been orbiting the Mercury since past more than four years. NASA launched it in 2004. However, it took around six and a half years for the Messenger spacecraft to enter the orbit of Mercury. The probe was finally inserted into Mercury’s orbit on March 18, 2011. The main mission of the spacecraft was to collect the data about the planet for one earth year while orbiting around Mercury.

Even after its term of one year, the instruments of the spacecraft were in healthy condition, and there was ample fuel to continue the mission for more time. Moreover, the findings of one year had already raised more questions and curiosity, and hence the spacecraft received two unexpected extensions. Due to this the messenger spacecraft that was scheduled to orbit Mercury only for a year or until the fuel lasted, continued to function for four long years.

Last Maneuver on April 24

The last orbit correction maneuvers for the messenger spacecraft is scheduled on April 24. The operators in control of the mission at the Laurel, Maryland’s Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory completed the fourth orbit correction maneuvers intended to delay the impact of the spacecraft into the planet, Mercury.

In 2012, messenger probe provided evidence to support the hypothesis that Mercury has an abundant amount of frozen water and different type of volatile materials present in its polar craters.

Invisible Paint from Comet dust darkens surface of the Mercury

Mar 31, 2015 by Karla Fetrow Leave a Comment

Washington – The cause as to why planet Mercury reflects very little sunlight has remained a mystery for the longest time possible. Scientists have previously wanted to hold culprit the iron particles found on the surface. However, this may not have been possible because the planet’s surface is pretty low in nanophase iron hence it can’t be the cause of the dim appearance.

Earlier on, Scientists had this believe that there must be some sort of a darkening agent that contributed to Mercury’s low reflectance. Even as they held their believe on this, the fact that Mercury gets dumped on by a lot of material that has been derived from comets had not been out into consideration. This is according to Megan Bruck from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Never the less, the same Scientists now say they have since discovered the reason why the planet’s surface is dark and barely reflective.It is not as a result of the planet’s geologic make up but it is believed that a steady dusting of carbon from passing comets could have slowly been painting Mercury black over billions of years.

The comet dust is more of an invisible paint and accumulates 25 percent carbon. Comets being the frozen bodies that they are tend to break – up as they approach the sun which gives it higher chances of exposure of Mercury to comet dust.

The scientists according to Peter Schultz a co-author of the study used the Ames Vertical Gun Range in running their experiments and in an effort to prove their theory of how this scattering material was darkening the surface of Mercury.

This facility is used for small scale simulations with an attachment of high speed celestial body impacts. In scenarios asteroid impacts on planets and those that happen to entry vehicles, the gun comes in handy.

The process is said to have shown reduction reflectivity by five percent the same percentage that represents the darkest areas of mercury.

Study finds 4% yearly rise of Mercury concentration in Hawaiian Pacific Yellowfin Tuna Fish

Feb 3, 2015 by Charles Omedo Leave a Comment

A recently published study indicates that the concentration of mercury found in North Pacific commercial fisheries is climbing at a rate of 4% yearly, and this is a reflection of the amount of mercury in the waters of the North Pacific oceans.

“The take-home message is that mercury in tuna appears to be increasing in lock-step with data and model predictions for mercury concentrations in water in the North Pacific,” said lead author Paul Drevnick, from the University of Michigan Biological Station and School of Natural Resources and Environment.

The model predictions were based on the atmospheric mercury release caused by smelting and the widespread burning of coal for power among other industries, and compared with historical records available on yellowfin tuna or Thunnus albacores in Hawaii over the past 50 years. The resulting data is that mercury concentrations continue to rise with no signs of abating since the industrial revolution.

“This confirms that mercury levels in open ocean fish are responsive to mercury emissions,” Drevnick added.

And at the rate of increase, the levels of industry-emitted mercury could double in concentration and the toxic metal overwhelm the Pacific by 2050, the researchers said. The Minamata Convention on Mercury held last September at the UN General Assembly where 120 countries vowed to combat the threat of mercury poisoning on a global scale would be defeated unless of course immediate steps are taken to arrest the situation.

The convention was designed to have nations working together to reduce industrial mercury emissions and prevent another tragedy like the one that occurred to the Japanese city of Minamata in 1956, which resulted in at least 54 cases of mercury poisoning. Most of those cases resulted in death or devastating cognitive impairment within the year.

“Future increases in mercury in yellowfin tuna and other fishes can be avoided by reductions in atmospheric mercury emissions from point sources,” Drevnick and his colleagues pressed, stressing that aside from pursuing ways to reduce mercury pollution via safe industrial practices, regulative attention should be brought to atmospheric emissions, namely those from gold smelting and coal burning.