Lecture 3: Mercury and Venus, the inner planets

Further reading

• There's an interview with David Grinspoon (author of "Venus Revealed") at space.com http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/venus_life_040826.html, discussing how Venus lost its water.
• The main MESSENGER website is at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/index.php
• 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 are beautiful relief maps of Venus, Mars and the Moon at Ralph Aeschliman's Planetary Cartography and Graphics http://ralphaeschliman.com/

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 background image: MESSENGER Encounters the Innermost Planet, PIA 11247 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA11247
• Mariner 10: from NSSDC Master Catalog: Spacecraft, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/tmp/1973-085A.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
• 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 Views of the Solar System by Calvin Hamilton, http://www.solarviews.com/cap/merc/mercint.htm
• Mariner 10 composite approaching Mercury: from NASA's History Division SP-424 The Voyage of Mariner 10, Chapter 7, http://history.nasa.gov/SP-424/ch7.htm
• MESSENGER Flyby 2 mosaic: from http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=214
• Except where otherwise noted, all Mariner 10 images are from NASA Planetary Photojournal: Mercury, http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/targetFamily/Mercury or the NSSDC Planetary Image Catalog: Mercury, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/thumbnail_pages/mercury_thumbnails.html
• Mariner 10 map of Mercury: from Mercury Transit on May 7, 2003: Mapping Mercury, http://www.astro.uni.wroc.pl/vt-2004/mt-2003/mt-mercury-mapping.html
• Caloris basin mosaic: PIA10383 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10383 Caloris basin in colour: PIA10359 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10359
• The Spider; PIA11077 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA11077
• Volcano in Caloris: PIA10942 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10942
• Formation of the weird terrain: from Astronomy 23/223: Mercury, www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/ mdyar/ast223/mercury/mercury_geol.pdf
• Crater chains from MESSENGER: 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
• 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
• Image of Messenger: from the Messenger website, http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/. 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 background image: from MESSENGER Bids Farewell to Venus, http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=158
• 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 Galileon, from NSSDC's Planetary Image Archives http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/thumbnail_pages/venus_thumbnails.html
• Hadley rotation: from NASA's Cosmos by Kenneth Lang: Venus, the Veiled Planet http://ase.tufts.edu/cosmos/view_overview.asp?id=7
• 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, http://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 Seafriends - 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

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Last updated 2 April 2009