Metallic Species in Mercury's Exosphere Observed by MESSENGER, the Keck I and McMath-Pierce Telescopes

Details Metallic Species in Mercury's Exosphere Observed by MESSENGER, the Keck I and McMath-Pierce Telescopes Metallic Species in Mercury's Exosphere Observed by MESSENGER, the Keck I and McMath-Pierce Telescopes

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.6701k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #67.01

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present observations of metals in the exosphere of Mercury obtained during 2008. We present the first map of K/Na in Mercury's exosphere and analysis of the detection of Mg in Mercury's exosphere. The K and Na observations were obtained at the McMath-Pierce solar telescope on January 17, 2008, three days after the first MESSENGER flyby. Magnesium was observed by the MESSENGER MASCS instrument during the second Mercury flyby, October, 6, 2008, in its 2853 A emission line. A least squares fit to the temperature of the Mg exosphere was run to determine the minimum-variance solution, resulting in a model temperature between 25,000 and 50,000 K for different regions. This suggests that the atoms in the tail represent the high-energy portion of the source distribution. We present upper limits for both Al and Fe obtained using HIRES at the Keck I telescope on Mauna Kea in 2008. The Al and Fe lines were obtained at a radius of 2800 km on 14 May 2008, with the slit positioned tangent to the anti-solar disk. Models assuming an impact vaporization source and an ion-sputter source, respectively, are discussed. The impact vaporization scale height for Mg should be approximately 250 km but the observed temperature indicates a scale height of about 1000 km, consistent with ion sputtering. We discuss the possibility of a molecular exosphere at low altitudes.

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