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Clark R. Chapman Southwest Research Inst. Boulder, Colorado, USA (member, MESSENGER Science Team) Clark R. Chapman Southwest Research Inst. Boulder, Colorado, USA (member, MESSENGER Science Team) Invited Oral Presentation Session PS02: The Exploration of Mercury 2 nd Annual AOGS Meeting Singapore, 21 June 2005 Invited Oral Presentation Session PS02: The Exploration of Mercury 2 nd Annual AOGS Meeting Singapore, 21 June 2005 Review of Mariner 10 Observations: Mercury Surface Impact Processes Slide 2 Introduction to Cratering on Mercury Only direct evidence is from Mariner 10 images of mid-70s (and recent radar) Theoretical and indirect studies Comparative planetology (Moon, Mars, ) Calculations/simulations of impactor populations (asteroids, comets, depleted bodies, vulcanoids) Theoretical studies of cratering mechanics, ejecta distributions, regolith evolution, etc. Clearly, impact cratering dominates Mercury today, was important in the past Impact processes range from solar wind and micrometeoroid bombardment to basin- forming impacts MESSENGER will address cratering issues Slide 3 Mercurys Craters: Early Observations Craters seen by Mariner 10 look superficially like Moon/Mars But morphologies differ (high g, fewer erosive processes, etc.); see chapters by Spudis & Guest, Pike, and Schultz in Mercury (U. Ariz. Press) Stratigraphy based on old Tolstoj and more recent Caloris basins Recent, fresh craters affect albedo (e.g. rays) Slide 4 Origins for Mercurys Craters Primary impact cratering High-velocity comets (5x lunar production rate) Sun-grazers, other near-parabolic comets Jupiter-family comets Crater chains may be solar-disrupted comets (Schevchenko & Skobeleva 2005, COSPAR) Near-Earth, Aten, and Inter-Earth asteroids Ancient, possibly depleted, impactor populations Late Heavy Bombardment Outer solar system planetesimals (outer planet migration) Main-belt asteroids (planetary migration, collisions) Trojans and other remnants of terrestrial planet accretion Left-over remnants of inner solar system accretion Vulcanoids (bodies that primarily impact Mercury only) Secondary cratering Craters Secondary Craters on Europa and the Moon) (Bierhaus et al., Nature, in press 2005) From studies of spatial clustering and size distributions of ~25,000 craters on Europa, Bierhaus concludes that >95% of them (consistent with all of them) are secondaries! Simple extrapolation to the Moon (if craters in ice behave as in rock) shows that secondaries could account for all small craters on the steep branch of the size-frequency relation! Slide 10 Crater Production Function Shoemaker first proposed steep branch as secondaries Neukum (and most others eventually) considered it an attribute of primaries Evidence from Europa and Mars now suggests Shoemaker was right after all Another question: Big, secondaries from basins? (Wilhelms) Secondary Branch T.P. Highlands Slide 11 Secondaries Dominate Mars (McEwen et al. 2005) Zunil produced enough secondaries to account for 1 Myr of Neukum production function Zunil may have made a billion craters >10m diam The Rayed Crater Zunil and Interpretations of Small Impact Craters on Mars (Alfred S. McEwen, Brandon S. Preblich, Elizabeth P. Turtle, et al.,2005) Slide 12 Small and Microscale Impact and Regolith Processes Potential ice deposits in near- polar shadows may be blanketed to some depth by regolith deposition Competing processes of ice deposition, impact erosion, regolith deposition Mercurys surface is bombarded by micrometeorites and, periodically, by solar wind particles Optical properties (albedo and color) are modified (space weathering) rendering compositional inferences suspect Slide 13 Conclusion: MESSENGER Will Help Resolve Cratering Puzzles MESSENGERs high resolution will reveal many small craters (secondaries?) Probably they will be less far-flung from their primaries than is true on Europa Are multi-10s-of-km diameter craters secondaries from Mercurys dozens of basins (as Wilhelms believes is true for the Moon)? We should be cautious about tying Mercurys geological history to the lunar LHB and cautious about relative age- dating of smaller units Mercurys geology may be old, with contraction/compression closing off the surface from the internal activity below Or geology may be young, active today Slide 14 The End Slide 15 Supplementary Slides Follow Slide 16 Mercury: an extreme planet Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun Mercury is the smallest planet except for Pluto Mercury is like a Baked Alaska: extremely hot on one side, extremely cold at night Mercury is made of the densest materials of any planet: it is mostly iron Mercurys size compared with Mars Slide 17 Mercury is Difficult (but Possible) to See for Yourself Mercury is visible several times a year just after sunset (e.g. tonight, but it will be tough!) just before sunrise (the week after Labor Day weekend is best); Mercury will be near Regulus in Leo It is always close to the Sun, so it is a race between Mercury being too close to the horizon and the sky being too bright to see ituse a star chart to see where it is with respect to bright stars and planets Through a telescope, Mercury shows phases like the Moon http://messenger.ciw.edu/WhereMerc/WhereMercNow.php Tonight, Mercury is to the lower right of Jupiter at dusk Slide 18 MESSENGER: A Discovery Mission to Mercury MESSENGER is a low-cost, focused Discovery spacecraft, built at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory It will be launched within days It flies by Venus and Mercury Then it orbits Mercury for a full Earth-year, observing the planet with sophisticated instruments Designed for the harsh environs MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging Important science instruments and spacecraft components Slide 19 MESSENGERs Trajectory Slide 20 Is there or isnt there: ferrous iron? Or is Mercurys surface reduced? Putative 0.9m feature appears absent Other modeling of color/albedo/near-to-mid-IR-spectra yield FeO + TiO 2 of 2 - 4% (e.g. Blewett et al., 1997; Robinson & Taylor, 2001) Warell (2002): SVST data (big boxes) compared with earlier spectra Vilas (1985): all glass Slide 21 Concluding Remarks MESSENGERs six science goals Why is Mercury so dense? Why is Mercury so dense? Why is Mercury so dense? Why is Mercury so dense? What is the geologic history of Mercury? What is the geologic history of Mercury? What is the geologic history of Mercury? What is the geologic history of Mercury? What is the structure of Mercury's core? What is the structure of Mercury's core? What is the structure of Mercury's core? What is the structure of Mercury's core? What is the nature of Mercury's magnetic field? What is the nature of Mercury's magnetic field? What is the nature of Mercury's magnetic field? What is the nature of Mercury's magnetic field? What are the unusual materials at Mercury's poles? What are the unusual materials at Mercury's poles? What are the unusual materials at Mercury's poles? What are the unusual materials at Mercury's poles? What volatiles are important at Mercury? What volatiles are important at Mercury? What volatiles are important at Mercury? What volatiles are important at Mercury? But I think that serendipity and surprise will be the most memorable scientific result of MESSENGER The history of past planetary spacecraft missions teaches us to expect surprise MESSENGER has superb instruments, it will be so close to Mercury, and it will stay there a full year