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Mercury Surface Research Paper

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Mercury's surface is covered with craters, rocks and dust, resulting in a rather barren appearance. It is thought that Mercury's surface greatly resembles that of our Moon which orbits Earth. The study of the surface features by Schiaparelli and his logging of their movements led him to conclude that Mercury always faces the same side towards the Sun. The craters on Mercury's surface range in size from the relatively small, to huge impact craters caused by collisions with asteroids or meteors. The biggest known crater on Mercury, the Caloris Basin, was one of these, with a diameter of 1550km square. The Messenger spacecraft has created a digital imagery of some of Mercury's surface, and identified 15 of these impact craters. There can also be found plains, such as the Odin Planitia, named for the Norse God Odin. There are also mountains, such as the Caloris Montes, valleys such as …show more content…

The planet's atmosphere is also surrounded by thick, acidic, sulfuric clouds. The atmospheric pressure is approximately 90 times that of Earth, and the atmosphere is made up mainly of carbon dioxide, with the remaining 3.5% taken up with nitrogen and a few other elements. The thick sulfuric clouds surrounding the planet make it difficult to view the surface with any accuracy, and the huge pressure and heat below the clouds mean that the atmosphere is not conducive for human-made crafts to survive in the climate. Venus's atmosphere is in constant circulation of the planet, circling it in a mere 4 Earth days. The winds near the atmosphere of Venus are approximately 220mph in order to facilitate this speedy atmospheric rotation, although the winds on the surface are much much slower. In summary, Venus would be a bad (and unpleasant) choice for human habitation, due to enormous levels of atmospheric pressure, very high temperatures, and sulfuric acid

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