Mercury Flyby 1 |
Mercury Flyby 1 |
Dec 5 2007, 06:47 AM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 258 Joined: 22-December 06 Member No.: 1503 |
40 days and counting. The long wait is almost over!
I wonder whether we will get enough data to test new simulation theories like this one. http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg19...solar-wind.html What do you expect from this first flyby? |
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Jan 17 2008, 02:56 AM
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#2
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
I dunno, Tasp; they'd have to be pretty small comets, IMHO. Maybe, if we find some that have no discernable relationship to larger craters, but doubt that they''d be tidally disrupted impactors; more likely thermal breakup.
A good-sized comet from the Oort Cloud's gonna have a tremendous relative velocity at impact (in fact, that's the horse I'd bet on for Caloris). Additionally, most comets don't seem to calve until well after perihelion, and usually they're beyond the orbit of Mercury by then. Hmm. Almost makes me wish that Mercury was rotationally locked to the Sun 1:1 instead of 3:2. The differential crater densities between the two sides might have been most instructive. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Jan 17 2008, 04:46 AM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
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Jan 17 2008, 07:08 AM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 716 Joined: 3-January 08 Member No.: 3995 |
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