Mercury: The Dark-Side Temperature
- 30 October 1970
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 170 (3957) , 535-537
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.170.3957.535
Abstract
The planet Mercury was observed before, during, and after the inferior conjunctions of 29 September 1969 and 9 May 1970 at wavelengths of 3.75, 4.75, 8.6, and 12 microns. The average dark-side temperature is 111° ± 3°K. The thermal inertia of the surface required to fit this temperature is close to that for the moon and indicates that Mercury and the moon have very similar top surface layers.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Observations of the Brightness and Polarization of the Outer Corona during the 1966 November 12 Total Eclipse of the SunThe Astrophysical Journal, 1970
- The Microwave Phase Effect of MercuryThe Astrophysical Journal, 1967