-INTRODUCTION

-CHARACTERISTICS
-RESEARCHES

-Mercury is the smallest and

closest to the Sun of the eight
planets in the Solar System.
-The planet is named after the
Roman deity Mercury the
messenger to the gods.
-Mercury is gravitationally
locked and rotates in a way
that is unique.
-Mercury moves in an orbit
around the Sun that lies within
Earth's orbit.

-Mercury is one of four

terrestrial planets in the
Solar System, and is a rocky
body.
-Mercury is much smaller
than the Earth and its inner
regions are not as
compressed.
-Mercury's core occupies
about 42% of its volume.

-Mercury's core has a higher iron content than that of any

other major planet in the Solar System.
-Mercury originally had a metal-silicate ratio similar to
common chondrite meteorites, thought to be typical of the
Solar System's rocky matter, and a mass approximately 2.25
times its current mass.

-Early in the Solar System's history, Mercury may have been

struck by a planetesimal of approximately 1/6 that mass and
several thousand kilometers across. The impact would have
stripped away much of the original crust and mantle, leaving
the core behind as a relatively major component.

-Mariner 10
-MESSENGER
-BepiColombo

-The first spacecraft to

visit Mercury was NASA's
Mariner 10 (19741975).
The spacecraft used the
gravity of Venus to adjust
its orbital velocity so that
it could approach
Mercury, making it both
the first spacecraft to use
this gravitational
"slingshot" effect and the
first NASA mission to visit
multiple planets.

-A second NASA mission

to Mercury, named
MESSENGER (MErcury
Surface, Space
ENvironment,
GEochemistry, and
Ranging), was launched
on August 3, 2004, from
the Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station aboard a
Boeing Delta 2 rocket.

-The European Space

Agency is planning a
joint mission with Japan
called BepiColombo,
which will orbit Mercury
with two probes: one to
map the planet and the
other to study its
magnetosphere.

Presentation by:
-Alejandro Jarabo
-Alvaro Mora
-David Vzquez
-Daniel Vzquez