ASTR 100Lgx Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Axial Tilt, Solar Time, Olympus Mons
Document Summary
Has to pass through lots of earth atmosphere. It"s rotation is exactly 2/3rds its revolution, spin-orbit coupling. Suggests it has a molten core because of the dynamo effect. Believed to come from the shrinking of mercury"s crust as it cooled. It"s tough to see cuz it"s near the sun and therefore low on the horizon. Is really cold on the dark side, really hot on the light side. Rotates pretty darn slow (59 earth days), revolves in 88 days. Mercury has scarps, long cliffs in a line. There"s also a large bulls-eye crater called caloris basin. Mercury has a large iron core that may or may not be molten. Has a magnetic field that"s 1% as strong as earth"s. Craters at the poles that don"t get sunlight have frozen ice. Venus rotates the other direction, so basically it"s north pole points down. 19 spacecraft have landed on venus, none lasted very long.
