Sci/Tech Rare View Of Mercury As NASA Craft Orbits

[The Helper]

A small NASA spacecraft called Messenger will enter into the orbit of the planet Mercury on St. Patrick ’s Day, circling as close as 125 miles from the rocky planet's surface and revealing parts of Mercury never before seen by human eyes.

Coincidentally, a few days earlier will be the best time this year for people here on Earth to see Mercury with the naked eye, the Associated Press reported.

Despite being the planet closest to the sun, some scientists believe Mercury contains tons of ice in its craters, something Messenger’s scientists hope to soon confirm.

Sun scorched Mercury is in many ways the strangest planet in the solar system, with its days somehow lasting longer than its years. Just slightly bigger than the moon, Mercury also exhibits the most extreme temperature variations of all the planets in the solar system.

More here.

 

[Varine]

Why don't we spend more money on things like this?

 

[xPass]

Why don't we spend more money on things like this?

Yeah I agree, at least we can find out about LIFE before it ends...

 

[Varine]

Okay, well... I was thinking less about it ending and more about colonizing, but okay.

 

[Dinowc]

I never found Mercury as "exciting" as other planets
the way I see it it's just a bigger version of our Moon

it's highly unlikely to find life there

 

[xPass]

I never found Mercury as "exciting" as other planets
the way I see it it's just a bigger version of our Moon

it's highly unlikely to find life there

Highly unlikely, but not unlikely

 

[FireCat]

Highly unlikely, but not unlikely

QFT But

Mercury also exhibits the most extreme temperature variations of all the planets in the solar system.

What kind of life can survive that? lol

 

[Varine]

A subterranean life. Mercury Locust FTW.

 

[FireCat]

A subterranean life. Mercury Locust FTW.

Hehehe Maybe!
But if subterranean are as hard as steel? That would be tricky for any life form
Wouldn't It? lol

 

[Varine]

Not if the lifefrom grew there genius.

 

[UndeadDragon]

The first organisms on Earth barely breathed oxygen. Life adapts to its conditions.

 

[Varine]

There was barely any oxygen on Earth when life began. There's not even that much here now, most of what we breathe in is nitrogen. It kind of makes me curious as to WHY we use oxygen, though, when there is far more nitrogen for us to use.

 

[tommerbob]

I think scientists are less concerned about finding life on Mercury as they are about finding traces of water or at least ice on mercury.

 

[uberfoop]

It kind of makes me curious as to WHY we use oxygen, though, when there is far more nitrogen for us to use.

Same reason we don't use dirt for our nuclear reactors; it being common doesn't give it certain important chemical properties.

 

[Varine]

What important chemical property does oxygen (an element by the way, dirt is not an element, - specifically O2, you don't want to breathe O3) have that makes it so specialized, like the very specific isotopes of elements we use?

 

[sqrage]

What important chemical property does oxygen (an element by the way, dirt is not an element, - specifically O2, you don't want to breathe O3) have that makes it so specialized, like the very specific isotopes of elements we use?

http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/013196.html
http://factoidz.com/why-do-we-breathe-oxygen/

 

[Varine]

Oh. Nevermind then, I will go away.

 

[Wummi]

Why don't we spend more money on things like this?

I think they do, but last time a $424 million dollar spacecraft somehow became a $424 million dollar home for fishes in the bottom of the Atlantic.

 

[Varine]

Maybe they should have been approved for 425 million?

 

[xPass]

Maybe they should have been approved for 425 million?

426 will be a better choice.