Lecture 3: The inner planets: Mercury and Venus

Further reading

• The main MESSENGER website is at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/index.php
• You can explore the orbital images from MESSENGER at http://messenger-act.actgate.com/msgr_public_released/react_quickmap.html
• Definitely check out the animations about Mercury's orbit at http://btc.montana.edu/messenger/elusive_planet/around_sun.php (can also be reached from the "Education" link on the main MESSENGER page)
• There's a nice set of java applets on planetary science at "The Solar System Collaboratory", http://solarsystem.colorado.edu/. The module on the greenhouse effect allows you to play with the various factors that influence the temperature of the surface of a planet.
• There's a good article about the hot spots on Venus at http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/06181637-transient-hot-spots-on-venus.html.

Source for images

All images of Mercury and Venus are from the NASA Planetary Photo Journal http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov, unless otherwise indicated. I have given the Planetary Image Archive (PIA) number for each image

• Inferior planets: from "Phone Dr Marc Archives: March 2004" http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/en/kids/phonedrmarc/2004_march.shtml. Shape of orbits in sky: from Astronomy 100 by Michael Skrutskie, handout on Inferior vs Superior Planets, http://pegasus.phast.umass.edu/a100/handouts/infsup.html
• Mercury after sunset: picture by Juan Carlos Casado, from Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2003 April 12, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030412.html
• Mercury limb, PIA16666: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16666
• Rotation of Mercury: from Journey to the Cosmic Frontier by John D. Fix, Fig. 10.3, http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/astronomy/fix/student/chapter10/10f03.html
• Animations of rotations of Mercury and Venus: animations by HMJ, with thanks to Ian Johnston.
• Flash animation of a day on Mercury: from MESSENGER: Animations and Movies, http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/MESSENGER/animationpage.htm
• Diagram of Mercury's orbit: from MESSENGER: Around the Sun, http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/MESSENGER/around.htm
• Interior of Mercury: from "Mercury's mysteries start to unfold" by David Stevenson, Nature 485, 52 (2012) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v485/n7396/fig_tab/485052a_F1.html
• BepiColombo: from ESA http://sci.esa.int/bepicolombo/47627-illustration-of-bepicolombo/
• Mariner 10 map of Mercury: from Steven Dutch, http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/planets/mercury.htm
• MESSENGER trajectory during first fly-by: from http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/multi04.html
• New names for features after first fly-by: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=181
• Mercury's horizon during first orbit: PIA14083, http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14083
• Mercury Globe: 0°N, 0°E , PIA 15160 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15160
• Caloris basin mosaic PIA13675: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13675
• Caloris basin in colour: PIA10359 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10359 Volcano inset: PIA10942 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10942
• The Spider; PIA11077 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA11077
• Formation of the weird terrain: from Astronomy 23/223: Mercury, www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/mdyar/ast223/mercury/mercury_geol.pdf
• Weird terrain comparison: from http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=297
• Crater chains from MESSENGER: PIA10378 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10378
• 3-D view of Discovery Scarp, from "New Data, New Ideas, and Lively Debate about Mercury" by G. Jeffrey Taylor, http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Oct01/MercuryMtg.html
• Scarps from MESSENGER: PIA10939 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10939 and http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=287
• Carnegie Rupies: from "Shrinking wrinkling Mercury" by William McKinnon, Nature Geoscience, 7, 251 (2014) http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v7/n4/fig_tab/ngeo2123_F1.html
• Radar detection of ice: from "New Data, New Ideas, and Lively Debate about Mercury" by G. Jeffrey Taylor, http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Oct01/MercuryMtg.html
• Evidence for water ice at Mercury's poles: MESSENGER press conference, 29 November 2012 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/media/PressConf20121129.html
• MESSENGER impact site: PIA19443 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19443 Image of BepiColombo: from ESA Space Science, http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120391_index_0_m.html
• Venus title image: computer generated picture of Magellan radar data, from Astronomy Picture of the Day 2002 March 30, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020330.html
• Venus orbit figures: from Venus Transit by Nick Fiorenza, http://www.lunarplanner.com/HCpages/Venus.html
• Venus' rotation: from Modern Myths taught as Science by Kenneth Fuller, http://www.geocities.com/kfuller2001/tVenus.html
• Artist's impression of Venus Express: from NSSDC Master Catalog: Spacecraft, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=VENUS-EXP
• Interior of Venus: from Views of the Solar System by Calvin Hamilton, http://www.solarviews.com/cap/venus/venusint.htm
• Venus magnetosphere: from ESA News 11 April 2006 http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM2GQNFGLE_index_0.html#subhead4
• Image of Venus' clouds from Galileo: Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2004 May 16, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040516.html
• Structure of Venus' atmosphere: from Venus: Earth's sister planet, http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr121/Notes/Chapter9.html
• Atmospheric structure: from Andrew Ingersoll (2007), "Express Dispatches", Nature 450 p. 617
• Greenhouse effect: from Venus: Earth's sister planet, http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr121/Notes/Chapter9.html Greenhouse comparison: from National Geophysical Data Centre: Overview of Climate Processes http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/ctl/about5.html
• UV images of atmosphere: colour enhanced images from Galileo, from NSSDC's Planetary Image Archives http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/thumbnail_pages/venus_thumbnails.html
• Hadley rotation: from Svedhem et al., "Venus as a more Earth-like planet", Nature 450 629 (2007)
• Pioneer polar vortex: from Oxford Venus Express group http://www.atm.ox.ac.uk/project/virtis/venus-polar.html; Vortex animation, from ESA Science & Technology: Venus Express http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=39671
• Sulfur cycle: by Carter Emmart, from "Venus Revealed" by David Grinspoon, Fig. 3.9, http://www.funkyscience.net/imagebank/images_ills_big/sulfurcycle.jpg
• Magellan: from NSSDC: Magellan Mission to Venus, https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/magellan.html
• Magellan orbit: from http://www.spacecraftkits.com/MFacts.html
• Venus topography: from NASA's Planetary Photojournal: Venus, http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/targetFamily/Venus
• Venus map: from Venus' Surface by David Soper, http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~soper/Venus/surface.html
• Comparison of Earth and Venus elevations: from Searfriends - Oceanography: Oceans, http://www.seafriends.org.nz/oceano/oceans.htm
• Except where otherwise noted, all Magellan images are from NASA Planetary Photojournal: Venus, http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/targetFamily/Venus or the NSSDC Planetary Image Catalog: Venus, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/thumbnail_pages/venus_thumbnails.html
• Distribution of shield volcanoes: from Volcano World: Volcanoes on Venus, http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/planet_volcano/venus/intro.html
• Lava dome: Novarupta Dome, Katmai Vicinity, Alaska, USGS Photo by Gene Iwatsubo, http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/Domes/description_lava_dome.html
• Arachnoid and anemone: from NASA's Remote Sensing Tutorial, Section 19-9: http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect19/Sect19_9.html
• Tessera: from Guide to Magellan Image Interpretation, Fig. 8-10, http://history.nasa.gov/JPL-93-24/p104.htm
• Looking westward across the Fortuna Tessera http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00316
• Venus Express: from ESA Venus Express http://www.esrin.esa.it/export/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEMZT4N0LYE_1.html
• Evolutionary model for terrestrial planets: from "Evolutionary dichotomy for rocky planets" by Linda Elkins-Tanton, Nature 497, 570 (2013), http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v497/n7451/fig_tab/497570a_F1.html
• Mars atmosphere: from "Early Mars couldn't hold liquid water long", Science News 13 April 2014 https://www.sciencenews.org/article/early-mars-couldnt-hold-liquid-water-long

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Last updated 23 October 2017