MESSENGER Primary Mission Phase, data acquisition and discussion |
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MESSENGER Primary Mission Phase, data acquisition and discussion |
 Jun 7 2011, 10:47 PM
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#16
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 Senior Member  Group: Admin Posts: 8406 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602  |
Based on the surprisingly large variety of small-scale albedo features, I think that even early minerology results may prove VERY interesting. Fingers crossed...
-------------------- 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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Jun 16 2011, 04:52 PM
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#17
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Member Group: Members Posts: 492 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Oklahoma Member No.: 557 |
Initial results are being announced today, some of which are already on the MESSENGER website.
Science update Multimedia for the upcoming press conference (due to start in just five minutes) are now available too. Multimedia link Edit at ten minutes past the hour: News conference underway on NASA TV. Huge volcanic deposit at north pole. Half past the hour: High level of potassium and sulfur, much higher amounts of volatiles than thought. Not so much iron and titanium as was thought from the flybys. Magnetic field way offset toward the north. |
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Jun 16 2011, 05:26 PM
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#18
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 Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5166 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
I had to answer my door and missed what Sean Solomon said about water ice at the poles. Did anybody hear?
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Jun 16 2011, 05:32 PM
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#19
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 629 Joined: 22-January 06 Member No.: 655 |
Missing raw image access on this mission - I think we've been spoilt by the MER's and Cassini.
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Jun 16 2011, 05:52 PM
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#20
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1191 Joined: 26-July 08 Member No.: 4270 |
QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Jun 16 2011, 11:26 AM)  Did anybody hear? They used altimetry to produce a model of one of the craters, then modelled sunlight around the crater to see where the permanantly shaded areas are, and found that they do coincide with the radar-reflective areas - consistent with the ice interpretation. -------------------- -- Hungry4info (Sirius_Alpha)
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Jun 16 2011, 05:55 PM
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#21
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Member Group: Members Posts: 492 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Oklahoma Member No.: 557 |
Solomon also repeated his statements at the end, in reply to a question, and said that if the radar bright deposits are mostly water (the jury is still out), then Mercury likely has more water than the moon.
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Jun 16 2011, 06:03 PM
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#22
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5166 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
Oooh. Cool. Thanks for the summary.
There's a hilarious conversation going on on Twitter right now about the MESSENGER scientists' remarks about "Mercury is not dead like the Moon." -------------------- |
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Jun 16 2011, 06:09 PM
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#23
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 8049 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
I love the pictures of the small volcanic vents. It's interesting to compare them with Ina (AKA D-Caldera) and the cluster of smaller features inside Hyginus on the Moon.
Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
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Jun 16 2011, 07:08 PM
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#24
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 Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4750 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Sloughhouse, CA Member No.: 197 |
Anyone know if there is a link to a video replay of this? I searched but I'm not finding anything.
EDIT: I see it's being replayed at 4:00 my local time. -------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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| Guest_Oersted_* |
Jun 18 2011, 12:54 AM
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#25
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Guests |
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 15th December 2019 - 09:32 AM |
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