MESSENGER Observations of the Composition of Mercury's Ionized Exosphere and Heliospheric Environment

Details MESSENGER Observations of the Composition of Mercury's Ionized Exosphere and Heliospheric Environment MESSENGER Observations of the Composition of Mercury's Ionized Exosphere and Heliospheric Environment

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.5107z&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #51.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.491

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

MESSENGER provided the first measurements of Mercury's ionized exosphere and the first composition measurements of Mercury's heliospheric particle environment. Mercury's exosphere is replete with ions that originate from Mercury's surface through interactions with its heliospheric environment. The MESSENGER observations of Mercury's ionized exosphere during its first flyby yielded Na+, O+, and K+ abundances, consistent with expectations from observations of neutral species. But, there were also substantial fluxes of S+ and possibly H2S+ as well as significant fluxes of water group ions. MESSENGER observations also revealed the presence of multiply charged ions, likely generated through electron impact ionization in Mercury's exosphere.
The heliospheric observations provided direct evidence of dust interactions and possibly evaporation through the detection of a singly ionized and spatially extended pickup-ion component in the inner heliosphere. This component includes singly ionized components of O, Na, Mg, and Fe. It also includes measurable traces of water group ions. These measurements are contrasted with heliospheric observations of singly charged particle observations near 1 AU or beyond, which revealed the first evidence of an inner heliospheric source of neutrals.

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