Physics
Scientific paper
Sep 1987
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1987icar...71..430c&link_type=abstract
(The Planet Mercury Conference, Tucson, AZ, Aug. 6-9, 1986) Icarus (ISSN 0019-1035), vol. 71, Sept. 1987, p. 430-440.
Physics
58
Exosphere, Heavy Ions, Mercury Surface, Metal Ions, Planetary Magnetic Fields, Planetary Magnetospheres, Sodium Vapor, Dipole Moments, Energetic Particles, Energy Budgets, Mariner 10 Space Probe, Planetary Rings, Solar Wind, Mercury (Planet), Magnetosphere, Exosphere, Surface, Sodium, Heavy Ions, Mass, Energy, Source, Meteoriods, Solar Wind, Sputtering, Volatiles, Charged Particles, Ejection, Calculations, Diagrams, Oxygen
Scientific paper
The discovery of an atomic sodium exosphere at Mercury raises the question of whether Mercury, like Io at Jupiter, can maintain a heavy ion magnetosphere. The authors suggest that it does, and that heavy ions (mainly Na+) from the exosphere are typically accelerated to keV energies and make important or dominant contributions to the mass (≡300 g sec-1) and energy (≡3×109W) budgets of the magnetosphere. The sodium supply to the exosphere is largely from within Mercury itself, with external sources like meteoroid infall and the solar wind being relatively unimportant. Therefore Mercury is in the process of losing its semivolatiles. Photosputtering dominates charged particle sputtering and can maintain an adequate rate of Na ejection from the surface.
Cheng Andrew F.
Johnson Robert E.
Krimigis Stamatios M.
Lanzerotti Louis J.
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