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Kuiper (Mercurian Crater)
Kuiper is a moderate-size crater with a central peak cluster located at on Mercury. It is 62 kilometers in diameter and was named after Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper in 1976. It is one of only 2 Mercurian craters which are named not after artists, and one of very few cases when the same name is used for 3 craters (there are also Kuiper craters on Mars and on the Moon). Gerard Kuiper, being a leader of American planetary science, died shortly before the first images of Mercurian surface were made. Kuiper overlies the northern rim of the larger crater Murasaki. Kuiper crater has the highest recorded albedo of any region on the planet's surface and has a prominent ray system, suggesting that it is one of the youngest craters.Description Kuiper is one of the largest craters of the Kuiperian system on Mercury. The largest is Bartók crater.Denevi, B. W., Ernst, C. M., Prockter, L. M., and Robinson, M. S., 2018. The Geologic History of Mercury. In ''Mercury: The V ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MESSENGER
''MESSENGER'' was a NASA robotic space probe that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015, studying Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. The name is a backronym for "Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging", and a reference to the messenger god Mercury from Roman mythology. ''MESSENGER'' was launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004. Its path involved a complex series of flybys – the spacecraft flew by Earth once, Venus twice, and Mercury itself three times, allowing it to decelerate relative to Mercury using minimal fuel. During its first flyby of Mercury in January 2008, ''MESSENGER'' became the second mission, after Mariner 10 in 1975, to reach Mercury. ''MESSENGER'' entered orbit around Mercury on March 18, 2011, becoming the first spacecraft to do so. It successfully completed its primary mission in 2012. Following two mission extensions, the spacecraft used the last of its maneuvering propellant to deo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerard Kuiper
Gerard Peter Kuiper (; ; born Gerrit Pieter Kuiper; 7 December 1905 – 23 December 1973) was a Dutch astronomer, planetary scientist, selenographer, author and professor. He is the eponymous namesake of the Kuiper belt. Kuiper is considered by many to be the father of modern planetary science. Early life and career Kuiper, the son of a tailor in the village of Tuitjenhorn in North Holland, had an early interest in astronomy. He had extraordinarily sharp eyesight, allowing him to see with the naked eye magnitude 7.5 stars, about four times fainter than those visible to normal eyes. He studied at Leiden University in 1924, where at the time a very large number of astronomers had congregated. He befriended fellow students Bart Bok and Pieter Oosterhoff, and was taught by Ejnar Hertzsprung, Antonie Pannekoek, Willem de Sitter, Jan Woltjer, Jan Oort, and the physicist Paul Ehrenfest. He received his candidate degree in Astronomy in 1927 and continued straight on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Impact Crater
An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact craters typically have raised rims and floors that are lower in elevation than the surrounding terrain. Lunar impact craters range from microscopic craters on lunar rocks returned by the Apollo Program and small, simple, bowl-shaped depressions in the lunar regolith to large, complex, multi-ringed impact basins. Meteor Crater is a well-known example of a small impact crater on Earth. Impact craters are the dominant geographic features on many solid Solar System objects including the Moon, Mercury, Callisto, Ganymede and most small moons and asteroids. On other planets and moons that experience more active surface geological processes, such as Earth, Venus, Europa, Io and Titan, visible impact craters are less common because they become eroded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercury (planet)
Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System and the closest to the Sun. Its orbit around the Sun takes 87.97 Earth days, the shortest of all the Sun's planets. It is named after the Roman god ' ( Mercury), god of commerce, messenger of the gods, and mediator between gods and mortals, corresponding to the Greek god Hermes (). Like Venus, Mercury orbits the Sun within Earth's orbit as an inferior planet, and its apparent distance from the Sun as viewed from Earth never exceeds 28°. This proximity to the Sun means the planet can only be seen near the western horizon after sunset or the eastern horizon before sunrise, usually in twilight. At this time, it may appear as a bright star-like object, but is more difficult to observe than Venus. From Earth, the planet telescopically displays the complete range of phases, similar to Venus and the Moon, which recurs over its synodic period of approximately 116 days. The synodic proximity of Mercury to Earth makes Mercury most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kuiper (Martian Crater)
Kuiper is a Dutch occupational surname meaning cooper. Common spelling variants include Kuyper, Kuipers, Kuijper, Kuijpers, Kuypers, and De Kuyper. Notable people with the name include: Kuiper * Adrian Kuiper (born 1959), South African cricketer *Barend Klaas Kuiper (1877–1961), Dutch-American historian * David Kuiper (born 1980), Dutch rower *Duane Kuiper (born 1950), American baseball player *Edith Kuiper (born 1960), Dutch economist *Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper (1907–2003), Dutch Indologist *Gerard Kuiper (1905–1973), Dutch-American astronomer after whom the Kuiper belt was named *Glen Kuiper (born 1963) American broadcaster *Hennie Kuiper (born 1949), Dutch cyclist * J. P. Kuiper (1922–1985), Dutch professor of social medicine *Michael Kuiper (born 1989), Dutch martial artist * Nick Kuiper (born 1982), Canadian ice hockey player * Nicky Kuiper (born 1989), Dutch footballer *Nicolaas Kuiper (1920–1994), Dutch mathematician, known for Kuiper's test, Kuip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kuiper (lunar Crater)
Kuiper is a small lunar impact crater in a relatively featureless part of the Mare Cognitum. It is a circular, cup-shaped feature with only some minor wear. It was named after Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper in 1976. Kuiper was the Project Scientist for the Ranger program. This crater was previously identified as Bonpland E. The lava-flooded crater Bonpland lies to the east at the edge of the Mare Cognitum. To the east-southeast of Kuiper crater is the crash landing site of the Ranger 7 probe, the first American spacecraft to photograph the Moon. References * * * * * * * * * * * * External links Kuiper at The Moon WikiLTO-6D2 Kuiper— L&PI topographic map In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large- scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation), but historic ... * {{cite web, last = Wood , first = Chuck , ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mariner 10
''Mariner 10'' was an American Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe launched by NASA on 3 November 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury (planet), Mercury and Venus. It was the first spacecraft to perform flybys of multiple planets. ''Mariner 10'' was launched approximately two years after ''Mariner 9'' and was the last spacecraft in the Mariner program. (Mariner 11 and Mariner 12 were allocated to the Voyager program and redesignated ''Voyager 1'' and ''Voyager 2''.) The mission objectives were to measure Mercury's environment, atmosphere, surface, and body characteristics and to make similar investigations of Venus. Secondary objectives were to perform experiments in the interplanetary medium and to obtain experience with a dual-planet gravity assist mission. ''Mariner 10''s science team was led by Bruce C. Murray at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Design and trajectory ''Mariner 10'' was the first spacecraft to make use of an interplanetary gravitational slingshot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murasaki (crater)
Murasaki is a crater on Mercury located at 12 S, 31 W. It is 132 km in diameter. It was named after 10th-11th century Japanese writer Murasaki Shikibu. The name was approved by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature in 1976. To its east lies the slightly larger Hiroshige. The bright crater Kuiper Kuiper is a Dutch occupational surname meaning cooper. Common spelling variants include Kuyper, Kuipers, Kuijper, Kuijpers, Kuypers, and De Kuyper. Notable people with the name include: Kuiper *Adrian Kuiper (born 1959), South African cricket ... overlays the rim of Murasaki. References Impact craters on Mercury Murasaki Shikibu {{Mercury-planet-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albedo
Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of sunlight, solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that reflects all incident radiation. Surface albedo is defined as the ratio of Radiosity (radiometry), radiosity ''J''e to the irradiance ''E''e (flux per unit area) received by a surface. The proportion reflected is not only determined by properties of the surface itself, but also by the spectral and angular distribution of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface. These factors vary with atmospheric composition, geographic location, and time (see position of the Sun). While bi-hemispherical reflectance is calculated for a single angle of incidence (i.e., for a given position of the Sun), albedo is the directional integration of reflectance over all solar angles in a given period. The temporal resolution may range from seconds (as ob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray System
A ray system comprises radial streaks of fine '' ejecta'' thrown out during the formation of an impact crater, looking somewhat like many thin spokes coming from the hub of a wheel. The rays may extend for lengths up to several times the diameter of their originating crater, and are often accompanied by small secondary craters formed by larger chunks of ejecta. Ray systems have been identified on the Moon, Earth ( Kamil Crater), Mercury, and some moons of the outer planets. Originally it was thought that they existed only on planets or moons lacking an atmosphere, but more recently they have been identified on Mars in infrared images taken from orbit by '' 2001 Mars Odyssey''s thermal imager. Rays appear at visible, and in some cases infrared wavelengths, when ejecta are made of material with different reflectivity (i.e., albedo) or thermal properties from the surface on which they are deposited. Typically, visible rays have a higher albedo than the surrounding surface. More rarel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geology Of Mercury
The geology of Mercury is the scientific study of the surface, crust, and interior of the planet Mercury. It emphasizes the composition, structure, history, and physical processes that shape the planet. It is analogous to the field of terrestrial geology. In planetary science, the term ''geology'' is used in its broadest sense to mean the study of the solid parts of planets and moons. The term incorporates aspects of geophysics, geochemistry, mineralogy, geodesy, and cartography. Historically, Mercury has been the least understood of all the terrestrial planets in the Solar System. This stems largely from its proximity to the Sun which makes reaching it with spacecraft technically challenging and Earth-based observations difficult. For decades, the principal source of geologic information about Mercury came from the 2,700 images taken by the Mariner 10 spacecraft during three flybys of the planet from 1974 to 1975. These images covered about 45% of the planet’s surface, bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bartók (crater)
Bartók is a crater on Mercury. Its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1979. Bartók is named for the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, who lived from 1881 to 1945. Bartók is the largest crater of the Kuiperian system on Mercury, at 118 km diameter. It is followed by Amaral crater. Within the central peak complex of Bartók is a ''dark spot'' of low reflectance material (LRM).Zhiyong Xiao, Robert G. Strom, David T. Blewett, Paul K. Byrne, Sean C. Solomon, Scott L. Murchie, Ann L. Sprague, Deborah L. Domingue, Jörn Helbert, 2013. ''Dark spots on Mercury: A distinctive low-reflectance material and its relation to hollows''. Journal of Geophysical Research Planets.doi.org/10.1002/jgre.20115/ref> Dark spots are associated with hollows. To the northeast of Bartók is the large basin Beethoven. The crater Vālmiki is to the northwest of Bartók, and Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льо ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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