Mercury's exosphere: observations during MESSENGER's First Mercury flyby |
| |
Authors: | McClintock William E Bradley E Todd Vervack Ronald J Killen Rosemary M Sprague Ann L Izenberg Noam R Solomon Sean C |
| |
Institution: | Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80303, USA. william.mcclintock@lasp.colorado.edu |
| |
Abstract: | During MESSENGER's first Mercury flyby, the Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer measured Mercury's exospheric emissions, including those from the antisunward sodium tail, calcium and sodium close to the planet, and hydrogen at high altitudes on the dayside. Spatial variations indicate that multiple source and loss processes generate and maintain the exosphere. Energetic processes connected to the solar wind and magnetospheric interaction with the planet likely played an important role in determining the distributions of exospheric species during the flyby. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 PubMed 等数据库收录! |
|