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- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Observations from the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury have transformed our understanding of the origin and evolution of rocky planets. This volume is the definitive resource about Mercury for planetary scientists, from students to senior researchers. Topics treated in depth include Mercury's chemical composition; the structure of its crust, lithosphere, mantle, and core; Mercury's modern and ancient magnetic field; Mercury's geology, including the planet's major geological units and their surface chemistry and mineralogy, its spectral reflectance characteristics, its craters and cratering history, its tectonic features and deformational history, its volcanic features and magmatic history, its distinctive hollows, and the frozen ices in its polar deposits; Mercury's exosphere and magnetosphere and the processes that govern their dynamics and their interaction with the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field; the formation and large-scale evolution of the planet; and current plans and needed capabilities to explore Mercury further in the future.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Half-title page
- Series page
- Title page
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- 1 The MESSENGER Mission: Science and Implementation Overview
- 2 The Chemical Composition of Mercury
- 3 Mercury’s Crust and Lithosphere: Structure and Mechanics
- 4 Mercury’s Internal Structure
- 5 Mercury’s Internal Magnetic Field
- 6 The Geologic History of Mercury
- 7 The Geochemical and Mineralogical Diversity of Mercury
- 8 Spectral Reflectance Constraints on the Composition and Evolution of Mercury’s Surface
- 9 Impact Cratering of Mercury
- 10 The Tectonic Character of Mercury
- 11 The Volcanic Character of Mercury
- 12 Mercury’s Hollows
- 13 Mercury’s Polar Deposits
- 14 Observations of Mercury’s Exosphere: Composition and Structure
- 15 Understanding Mercury’s Exosphere: Models Derived from MESSENGER Observations
- 16 Structure and Configuration of Mercury’s Magnetosphere
- 17 Mercury’s Dynamic Magnetosphere
- 18 The Elusive Origin of Mercury
- 19 Mercury’s Global Evolution
- 20 Future Missions: Mercury after MESSENGER
- Index