Mercury & Venus Flashcards
What is Mercury God of?
Messages & Communication
What is the first planet from the sun?
Mercury
What is the diameter of Mercury?
.38
What planet is the smallest in the solar system?
Mercury
What is the Albedo of Mercury?
.12
What is the axial tilt of Mercury
.5
What planet has the most eccentric orbit?
Mercury
What planet has the smallest axial tilt?
Mercury
What planet is most inclined to the ecliptic plane?
Mercury
What is the semimajor axis of Mercury?
.39au
What is the Sidereal Period of Mercury?
24 years
What kind of rotation does Mercury have?
Prograde Rotation
What spin-orbit coupling does Mercury have?
3:2
Explain a 3:2 spin-orbit coupling
3 rotations for every 2 revoloutions
What type of atmosphere does Mercury have?
trace
When looking at mercury, how does the atmosphere look?
Black
What planet has the most extreme temperature change of all the planets?
Mercury
The oldest surface feature on a planet?
Intercrater Plains
What planet has a surface feature of intercrater plains?
Mercury
Low in elevation and represent smooth plains
Intercrater Plains
Lighter in color and more uniformly cover the surface
Intercrater Plains
Are intercrater plains older than lunar maria?
yes
Have a circular shape and are created by meteoritic shock waves
Impact craters
What do impact craters have on Mercury that surprised scientists?
ice
Where is ice located on Mercury?
North and South poles
The largest impact crater on Mercury
Calores basin
The youngest surface features
Scarps
represent long cliff created on mercur
Scarps
how were scarps created?
Mercury cooled and contracted and created long cliffs
A thick _____ layer of _____ rock composed of ___ plate, known as the crust.
thick, rigid, one
A _____ layer of _____ rock, known as the mantle
thick, rigid
Mainly composed of ____ and is 83% of Mercury’s diameter, known as the ____
iron, core
The most iron-rich planet
Mercury
the outer core may be composed of _____
pyrite
what weakens the magnetic core of Mercury?
the pyrite outer core
Mainly molten iron and generates Mercury’s _______ ______, known as _____ ____
magnetic field, Middle Core
Mainly solid iron
inner core
Mercury has a _____ _____ magnetic field
weak global
what does the magnetic field protect Mercury from?
solar wind
what does Mercury lack that the Earth has, protecting from Solar Wind?
Van Allen belts
what happened to the lighter material during the formation of Mercury?
it may have been vaporized
What is Venus the god of?
love and beaty
the second planet from the sun
Venus
Diameter of Venus
.95
The planet with the largest axial tilt
Venus
the Axial tilt of venus
177.4
The planet with the least eccentric orbit
Venus
Semimajor axis of Venus
.72 au
Sidereal period of Venus
.61 years
rotational period of Venus
243 days
What planet is the slowest rotating?
Venus
what type of rotation does Venus have?
Retrograde
Describe Venusian Atmosphere
much thicker than the Earth’s
Venus’s Albedo
59%
The third brightest planet
Venus
Venus’s atmosphere is 95.5% ______ and 3.5% ____
co2 & Nitrogen
What was the source of Venus’s Atmosphere?
outgassing
what is unique about Venus’s troposphere?
it is clear
As Altitude decreases, temps on Venus ______
increase
what is the hottest planet in the solar system?
Venus
As altitude decreases, pressure on Venus _____
increases
as altitude decreases, wind speed on Venus
decreases
what type of surface temp does Venus have?
Isothermal
Outgassing released ____ ____ & ____, greenhouse gasses
co2, h20, & S02
what happened to the greenhouse gasses on Venus?
they dissolved into oceans or became part of carbonate rock
Extra h20 on Venus made it Hotter, which caused oceans to _______
evaporate furthur
Evaporating oceans on Venus caused it to become even hotter, until it _____ ____ all the co2 in the rocks. This created a ________ _______ effect
Baked Out, Runaway Greenhouse
about _____ of Venus is volcanic plains
80%
Venus has ____ highland areas
2
Where is Ishtar terra located
North pole of Venus
The smaller of the two highlands
Ishtar terra
the tallest mountain on Venus
Maxwell montes
what is maxwell montes covered in?
metallic ‘snow’, possibly galena
located just south of the equator and is the largest of the two bio highlands on Venus
Aphrodite Terra
regarding impact craters, venus has _____ than earth and ____ than Mercury
more, less
The order of surface age of the three planets studied so far
mercury-venus-earth
the largest crater on Venus
Mead Crater
the longest channel in the solar system
Batlis Vallis
These represent raised circular areas created from thick, sticky lava
Pankake lava domes
largest volcanoes by size, broad dome with a gentle slope
shield volcanoes
what is at the top of shield volcanoes
large caldera
how do shield volcanoes form?
mafic lava that flows over millions of years
shield volcanoes are created from stationary mantle plume that may rise from the mantle-core boundary in a process called ______
hot-spot-volcanism
the tallest volcano on Venus at 5 miles high
maat moons
how high is the mana lou
5.7 miles
domes hat have undergone collapse and mass wasting
scalloped margin domes
scalloped margin domes & arachnoids are unique to what planet?
Venus
appear as concentric ovals surrounded by a network of fractures
arachnoids
Venusian crust is a ___ layer of ____ rock composed of _____ solid plate
thin, rigid, one
The mantle of Venus is mostly ____
molten rock
the core of Venus is mainly____
molten iron
does Venus have a magnetic field?
no
What type of Techtonics does Venus have?
flake Techtonics
a less vigorous convection current that create thicker crust and global, large-scale deformation such as crustal divergence and convergence
Plate techtonics
more vigorous convection currents that create a thinner crust and local, small-scale deformation such as crustal weakening and flaking
flake tectonics
what are flake Techtonics indicative of?
hotter interiors
plate tectonics release internal heat; flake tectonics trap internal heat. the trapped heat eventually weakens and slowly recycle all of the crust
global resurfacing hypothesis
what does the global resurfacing hypothesis create?
uniform surface age of 300-600 million years old
why does Venus not have any moons?
they spiral inwards and eventually impact the planet
