Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Nov 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008p%26ss...56.1676y&link_type=abstract
Planetary and Space Science, Volume 56, Issue 13, p. 1676-1680.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
1
Scientific paper
A rare, but normal, astronomical event occurred on November 9th 2006 (JST) as Mercury passed in front of the Sun from the perspective of the Earth. The abundance of the sodium vapor above the planet limb was observed by detecting an excess absorption in the solar sodium line D1 during this event. The observation was performed with a 10-m spectrograph of Czerny Turnar system at Domeless Solar Tower Telescope at the Hida Observatory in Japan. The excess absorption was red-shifted by 10 pm relative to the solar line, and was measured at the dawnside (eastside) and duskside (westside) of Mercury. Between the dawn and dusksides, an asymmetry of total sodium abundance was clearly identified. At the dawnside, the total sodium column density was 6.1×1010 Na atoms/cm2, while it was 4.1×1010 Na atoms/cm2 at the duskside. The investigation of dawn dusk asymmetry of the sodium exosphere of Mercury is a clue to understand the release mechanism of sodium from the surface rock. Our result suggests that a thermal desorption is a main source process for sodium vapor in the vicinity of Mercury.
Ezawa Fukuhiro
Kameda Shingo
Murakami G.
Ono Junya
Ueno Satoru
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