Mercury

Mercury
Mercury in Orbiter
Designation
Name	Mercury
Reference body	Sun
Number of satellites	0
Planetary mean orbits
Epoch	J2000 (1 January 2000)
Semimajor axis (a)	0.38709893 AU 5.790917567×107 km)
Eccentricity (e)	0.20563069
Inclination (i)	7.00487° (0.122258 radian)
Longitude of the ascending node (LAN, ☊)	48.33167° (0.8436468 radian)
Longitude of periapsis (ϖ)	77.45645° (1.351870 radian)
Mean longitude (L)	252.25084° (4.402608 radian)
Planetary orbital element centennial rates
Semimajor axis (a)	0.00000066 AU/Century
Eccentricity (e)	0.00002527 Century-1
Inclination (i)	-23.51 seconds/Century
Longitude of the ascending node (LAN, ☊)	-446.30 seconds/Century
Longitude of periapsis (ϖ)	573.57 seconds/Century
Mean longitude (L)	538101628.29 seconds/Century
Selected physical parameters
Mean radius	2440 km
Mass	3.301880×1023 kg
Density	5.427 g/cm3
Sidereal rotation period	1407.509 hours
Sidereal orbit period	0.2408445 years
Magnitude V(1,0)	-0.42
Geometric albedo	0.106
Equatorial gravity	3.701 m/s2
Escape velocity	4.435 km/s
Rotation elements
North pole right ascension (α1)	280.99°
North pole declination (δ1)	61.44°
Obliqutiy of ecliptic	7.01°
Longitude of Sun's transit	228.31°
Note	*Elements given are from Orbiter.pdf (2016)

Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system and is the closest to the sun. Mercury is a rocky planet appearing much like the moon and has virtually no atmosphere (none is modeled in Orbiter), and has no natural satellites.

Mercury was visited in 1974 and 1975 by Mariner 10 in two flybys and was again visited by MESSENGER spacecraft orbiting Mercury from 2011 to 2015 when it was deorbited. BepiColombo, a joint mission by the European Space Ageny (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploraation Agency (JAXA) was launched on 20 October 2018 and is scheduled to reach Mercury on 5 December 2025.

Orbital characteristics

Mercury is the innermost planet in the system with a semimajor axis of 5.79×10⁷ km. But, the orbital eccentricity is the largest of all the planets, about 0.2056, its distance ranging from 46 million to almost 70 million km from the Sun, and the inclination of its orbit is just over 7°, also largest of all the planets.

Physical characteristics

Mercury's mean radius is 2440 km, smaller than Ganymede and Titan, but more massive at a bit more than 3.3×10²³ kg. Mercury is unique in the solar system in that it is tidally locked with the Sun in a 3:2 spin-orbit resonance; it rotates three times for each two orbits around the Sun, which means that one day on Mercury is two of its years. It also has the smallest axial tilt with respect to its orbit, about 2 arcminutes.

Geological features

In Orbiter 2016, Mercury is modeled as a sphere with no elevations, but visually, it has a texture and approximately 300 named features on Mercury have been included in the stock Orbiter 2016, albedo features as well as craters, ridges, plains, escarpments, valleys, and one mountain.

See Geology of Mercury for list of features.

Notice to pilots

CAUTION! It is to be noted by pilots flying close to the ground at Mercury when approaching the North and South poles. If the vessel crosses either pole at low altitude and any great speed, errors in the simulator causes the scenario to freeze and may cause Crash to Desktop. However, if the pole is approached at very low speed, perhaps one or a few meters per second, the vessel can pass over and even land at the pole.

Add-ons

Topography and Textures

• Planet Mercury Level 8 High Resolution Surface released 19 October 2004 by BigJimW providing level 8 textures for Mercury.

• Mercury level 8 textures released 23 January 2012 by Felipi1205, provides level 8 texture for Mercury.

• Mercury heightmap + Level 9 global textures, released 23 April 2013 by 4throck, provides level 9 topogrraphy and textures for Mercury.

• Mercury Level 11 released 30 September 2013 by Post much? provides level 11 for Mercury.

• Mercury surface and heightmap tiles for Orbiter 2016, released 1 December 2016 by asbjos, provides level 7 topography and level 8 surface features for the planet. A new Mercury.cfg will load the 3D terrain, however, the existing mercury.cfg should be backed up before installation.

Mariner 10

Historically the first probe to use gravitational assists and first probe to visit Mercury. It made three fly-by's of Mercury between November 1973 and March 1974, but did not enter orbit.

• GEP - Mariner 10 to Orbiter 2010, released 29 May 2011 by Felipi125.

• GEP - Mariner 10 released 19 June 2004 by missleman01.

MESSENGER

Historically the first probe to enter orbit around Mercury. After three fly-by's between January 2008 and September 2009, it entered an highly elliptical orbit around Mercury on March 18th, 2011.

• Messenger released 26 JUne 2006 by unknown author.

• MESSENGER MOI released 14 March 2011 by NukekET.

• GEP-Messenger released 7 March 2012 by TheXFiles19.

External links

• Mercury at Wikipedia
• Mariner 10 mission at Wikipedia
• MESSENGER mission at Wikipedia

References

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