Mercury

Science Magazine Cover Illustration This page collects links and illustrations related to our paper:

J. L. Margot, S. J. Peale, R. F. Jurgens, M. A. Slade, I. V. Holin.
Large longitude libration of Mercury reveals a molten core.
Science, 316, 710-714, 2007.

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Illustrations:

Credit line: Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation.

Caption: Diagram showing the interior structure of Mercury. The metallic core extends from the center to a large fraction of the planetary radius. Radar observations show that the core or outer core is molten.

Click on the image for a high resolution version.

Artistic rendering of the interior of Mercury

Credit line: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF

Caption: Artistic rendering of the observational geometry. A radar signal (yellow) is transmitted from the Goldstone antenna in California. Radar echoes (red) are received at the Goldstone antenna and at the Robert C. Byrd telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia.

Artistic rendering of the observational geometry

Credit line: Jean-Luc Margot

Caption: Illustration of the trajectory (green circles, one second time interval) of radar speckles tied to the rotation of Mercury. Observers measured how long it takes for the pattern to travel between two antennas (red triangles) to measure the rotation rate of Mercury.

Diagram showing the trajectory of radar speckles on the surface of the Earth