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Chapter 11: Problem 13

If Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and has such a high average surface temperature, how is it possible that ice might exist on its surface?

Short Answer

Expert verified
Despite its high average surface temperature and proximity to the sun, ice can exist on Mercury due to its unique environmental characteristics. Mercury rotates slowly, causing extreme temperature differences between the side facing the sun and the other side. There are regions on Mercury's surface, specifically within deep craters at the poles, which remain in permanent shadow. Micrometeorites rich in water ice that strike Mercury's surface can leave behind water ice in these shadowed regions where it can stay indefinitely.

Step by step solution

01

Understanding Mercury's Environment

Firstly, one should understand that Mercury, like any other planet, has certain unique environmental characteristics. It does not have an atmosphere like Earth, and consequently, cannot trap heat. As Mercury is close to the Sun, the side of the planet facing the Sun experiences extremely high temperatures while the other side is significantly cooler. This is because Mercury rotates slowly - takes about 59 Earth days to rotate once.
02

Identify Ice Trapping Spots

Next, it is important to establish that there are regions on Mercury's surface that remain in permanent shadow. These are located at the poles, within deep craters where sunlight never reaches.
03

Existence of Ice

Given Mercury's proximity to the Sun, its surface gets bombarded with a lot of tiny micrometeorites, which are heavy in water ice. These micrometeorites strike Mercury's surface, a process that occasionally breaks the bonds in the water, freeing hydrogen to escape into space and leaves water ice behind. If this ice ends up in one of the permanently shadowed regions (deep craters), it could stay there indefinitely, resulting in the existence of ice on Mercury's surface.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Suppose all of Venus's volcanic activity suddenly stopped. (a) How would this affect Venus's clouds? (b) How would this affect the overall Venusian environment?

Water has a density of \(1000 \mathrm{~kg} / \mathrm{m}^{3}\), so a column of water \(n\) meters tall and 1 meter square at its base has a mass of \(n \times\) \(1000 \mathrm{~kg}\). On either the Earth or Venus, which have nearly the same surface gravity, a mass of \(1 \mathrm{~kg}\) weighs about \(9.8\)

Use the Starry Night Enthusiast \({ }^{\mathrm{TM}}\) program to compare the orbits of Venus and the Earth. Select Options > Viewing Location. .. from the menu. In the Viewing Location dialog box, set the View from to a position moving with the Sun and choose the option Above orbital plane. Then click the Set Location button to close the dialog. Click on and hold the Increase current elevation button in the Viewing Location section of the toolbar until the distance shown in the Viewing Location display pane is approximately \(\mathbf{1 . 5}\) au from the Sun. Open the Find pane and click both of the checkboxes on either side of the listing for the Earth and for Venus. This labels the two planets and draws their orbits in the view. Close the Find pane. Stop time flow and set the time and the date to 0:00:00 UT on August 19, 2007 AD. You can zoom in and zoom out on these two planets and their orbits using the buttons in the Zoom section of the toolbar. You can also rotate the solar system by holding down the Shift key and then holding down the mouse button and moving the mouse. (On a two-button mouse, hold down the left mouse button.) Are the orbits of Venus and of the Earth in the same plane? At the time shown in the image, is Venus nearest to inferior conjunction, superior conjunction, greatest eastern elongation, or greatest western elongation as seen from Earth? Explain your answers. Rotate your view to look down upon the orbits from above the pole of the Sun. Are the orbits of Earth and Venus circular?

Use the Stamy Night Enthusiast \({ }^{\text {M }}\) program to observe solar transits of Venus (see Question 83). Display the entire celestial sphere (select Guides \(>\) Atlas in the Favourites menu). Open the Find pane and click the menu button for Venus (the downwardpointing blue arrow to the left of Venus) in the list. Select Centre from the menu. Use the zoom controls in the toolbar to adjust the field of view to about \(1^{\circ} \times 1^{\circ}\). (a) In the toolbar, Stop time flow and then set the Time and Date to June 8, 2004, at 12:00:00 A.M. Set the Time Flow Rate to 1 hour. Step backward or forward through time using the single-step buttons (the leftmost and the rightmost buttons) and record the times at which the solar transit begins and ends, changing the Time Flow Rate to 1 minute and the field of view to increase the accuracy of your measurement, as necessary. What is the total duration of the solar transit? (b) The ecliptic appears in Starry Night Enthusiast \({ }^{\top M}\) as a green line. During the transit, is Venus precisely on the ecliptic? If not, about how far off is it? (Hint: The Sun has an angular diameter of about 30 arcmin.) (c) Repeat parts (a) and (b) for the solar transit of Venus on June 6,2012 .

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