After 30 years, back to Mercury

[Bozo Erectus]

The total mass in the main belt is much much less than that of Mercury.

The orthodox interpretation is that there never was a big planet 'tween the Martian and Jovian orbits. The consolidation of planetesimal material was interupted by the growing gravitational influence of Jupiter.

The composition of the Saturnian rings strongly points to an origin at a distance from the Sun than that of the main belt.

I had no idea, I always thought that if you put all the pieces together, the belt would form a pretty big planet. You have any good links about it by any chance, not because I doubt you but just so I can edjamacate myself

 

[Bozo Erectus]

This settles it. I have to make a cappucino.

I maintain some hope that the aliens have not succumbed to the Starborg.

I think I smell a coffee thread brewing. Mmm, smells good

 

[IglooDame]

Speaking of which (slurp) Im enjoying a piping hot cup of fresh ground coffee right now. Oh man thats good! Caffiene is one of my favorite addictions.

I wouldnt be surprised if one day one of our probes out there beams back a blurry, grainy, image of a Starbucks on the surface of another planet

I said life, not intelligent life. I like my caffeine cold and carbonated.

To attempt a reverse threadjack here, does anyone know the length of Mercury's day?

 

[Tassadar]

Here my friends, read chapter 11 ( edit chapter #) about mercury,


Quote,

Its rotational period is 59 days, as determined by radar measurements from the Earth using the Doppler effect. The ratio of the rotational period to the orbital period is 2/3, and is an example of more complicated tidal locking than for the Earth-Moon system. The tidal interaction between the Sun and Mercury leads to a 2/3 ratio (instead of 1/1 as for our Moon) because the orbit of the Moon about the Earth is almost a circle, but the orbit of Mercury around the Sun is rather elliptical.

Super link:http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/index.html

Look at astro 162 at the bottom also.

 

[The Last Conformist]

The rotational period is 58.646 Earth days. This is called a "sidereal day"

Thanks to the rapid revolution around the Sun, the "synodal day", the time from noon to noon, is much longer - 176 Earth days. You've got a nice resonance here one synodal day is two (Mercurian) years is three sidereal days.

Edit: Ah, xpost.

 

[The Last Conformist]

From http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/asteroids/index.shtml:

ORIGIN OF THE ASTEROID BELT
The asteroid belt may be material that never coalesced into a planet, perhaps because its mass was too small; the total mass of all the asteroids is only a small fraction of that of our Moon. The total mass of all the asteroids is about 2.3 x 10^21 kg ); our moon's mass is 7.35 x 10^22 kg; the asteroids' mass combined is about 1/30 of the mass of the Moon. A less satisfactory explanation of the origin of the asteroid belt is that it may have once been a planet that was fragmented by a collision with a huge comet.

 

[The Last Conformist]

For comparison, Mecury's mass is 3.30·10^23 kg, and the Earth about 6.0·10^24 kg.

 

[Tassadar]

Our solar system was born from chaos, it is surprising that such an order ( planet movement and sattelite dance) arise from chaotic cloud of matter, and then life over it [dance] . It make me feel ''cosmic''.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

The asteroid belt may be material that never coalesced into a planet, perhaps because its mass was too small; the total mass of all the asteroids is only a small fraction of that of our Moon.

This is what happens when you get most of your science information from science fiction. I pictured it like an immense rubble field, that a pilot would have to fly through carefully to avoid crashing into the asteroids.

[dance] . It make me feel ''cosmic''.

Stop bogarting that thing

 

[IglooDame]

The rotational period is 58,646 Earth days. This is called a "sidereal day"

Thanks to the rapid revolution around the Sun, the "synodal day", the time from noon to noon, is much longer - 176 Earth days. You've got a nice resonance here one synodal day is two (Mercurian) years is three sidereal days.

Edit: Ah, xpost.

I'm sorry, I may be misinterpreting a bit of math - the Mercury synodal day (176 Earth days) = three Mercury sidereal days (3 x 58,646 Earth days)?


EDIT: Nevermind, I forgot that commas and periods are reversed in Europe compared to the US, I should read it as 58.646 Earth days.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Ah, sorry, was copying the number from a Swedish encyclopaedia.

 

[The Last Conformist]

I think all my post in this thread consistently use dots to delineate decimals now.

It's, btw, not so easy as Europeans switching dots and commas. In the Swedish system, three-digit groups are delineated by spaces, so what you'd write as "45,609.5", we'd write as "45 609,5".

 

[IglooDame]

I think all my post in this thread consistently use dots to delineate decimals now.

It's, btw, not so easy as Europeans switching dots and commas. In the Swedish system, three-digit groups are delineated by spaces, so what you'd write as "45,609.5", we'd write as "45 609,5".

Egads. If you had only put two significant digits after the decimal point I probably would have figured it out off the bat, but if you include spaces... And people expect the ESA and NASA to work together?

 

[Tassadar]

Why the US are still using the old brithish imperial system ? it is outdated, even us Canada use metric system, it is much better, i know, i learn both becuase we did the changes.

Try doing chemistry with onces per gallon insteed of gramm per liter, it is a mess.