AS101 Study Guide - Final Guide: Mariner 10, Planetary Science, Escape Velocity
Document Summary
Mercury has been visited by just two spacecraft (mariner 10 in. As a result of these measurements it has been determined that. Mercury must be about 61% iron and have an iron core which is about 75% of the radius of the planet. Mariner 10"s orbit from earth in late 1973 (many of you were not yet born) included a flyby of venus (from which it got a gravitational boost) and three encounters with. Mercury"s surface has craters everywhere (much like the. Moon) revealing a battered past (in the formation era). Its largest crater is called the caloris basin which must have resulted from a huge impactor interaction. (see below) There is some evidence of volcanism, although in the distant past (none are active today). There are long (some over 200 km), high (up to 3 km) cliffs which are evidence of plate tectonic activity.
