Young readers will explore Mercury and learn what scientists hope to discover about it in the future. Engaging text discussing up-to-date scientific information paired with photos from NASA create an engaging learning experience.
Young readers will explore Mercury and learn what scientists hope to discover about it in the future. Engaging text discussing up-to-date scientific information paired with photos from NASA create an engaging learning experience.
Embark on a journey to get closer to the sun than you ever have before. Readers will discover more about Mercury, the smallest planet in our solar system, and see how it compares to the other rocky planets. Access a downloadable 3D printer model from NASA via Page Plus QR codes.
The planet Mercury has highs around 800 °F and lows around -280 °F. Students will learn about Mercury¿s discovery, physical characteristics, and the environment that supports these extreme temperatures.
Humans have long been fascinated by space exploration, from the earliest NASA probes to the latest journeys toward the distant edges of the solar system. Readers will learn about the discovery of new stars and planets, the ways celestial bodies are formed, and much more. Features: Engaging sidebars highlight important space discoveries Timelines illustrate the ways our knowledge of space has changed over time Glossaries explain difficult scientific terms in a way that makes them easy to understand Eye-catching images give readers an up-close look at the far reaches of space www.factsfornow.scholastic.com
The Sun may be a mass of incandescent gas, but in the plasmatic reaches of its solar winds spins another seemingly glowing (but relatively minute) orb. The last of the five naked-eye planets discovered in ancient times, Mercury has long been an elusive, enigmatic world. As seen from the Earth, it never emerges far from the Sun, and astronomers in the telescopic era found it challenging to work out basic data such as its rotation period, the inclination of its axis, and whether or not it possessed an atmosphere. In this fully up-to-date and beautifully illustrated account, William Sheehan describes the growth of our knowledge of planet Mercury. From the puzzles it posed for early astronomers to radar studies in the 1960s, and from the first spacecraft fly-bys by the Mariner 10 probe in the 1970s to the latest images from the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) orbital mission between 2011 and 2015, Mercury has slowly been brought into clear focus. But although we have now mapped its surface in exquisite detail, revealing strange features like volcanic plains and water-ice deposits in craters near the poles, mysteries remain—such as why its core has the highest iron content of any body of the Solar System. Rather than growing duller on closer acquaintance, this most mercurial of planets continues to fascinate us, offering important clues to scientists as they seek to better understand the origin and evolution of the Earth.
Through this book, students will learn about our solar system's smallest planet. On their journey to Mercury, readers will discover Mercury's extreme temperatures and mysterious craters. Young astronauts will be amazed by Mercury's unique features.
A new and detailed picture of Mercury is emerging thanks to NASA’s MESSENGER mission that spent four years in orbit about the Sun’s innermost planet. Comprehensively illustrated by close-up images and other data, the author describes Mercury’s landscapes from a geological perspective: from sublimation hollows, to volcanic vents, to lava plains, to giant thrust faults. He considers what its giant core, internal structure and weird composition have to tell us about the formation and evolution of a planet so close to the Sun. This is of special significance in view of the discovery of so many exoplanets in similarly close orbits about their stars. Mercury generates its own magnetic field, like the Earth (but unlike Venus, Mars and the Moon), and the interplay between Mercury’s and the Sun’s magnetic field affects many processes on its surface and in the rich and diverse exosphere of neutral and charged particles surrounding the planet. There is much about Mercury that we still don’t understand. Accessible to the amateur, but also a handy state-of-the-art digest for students and researchers, the book shows how our knowledge of Mercury developed over the past century of ground-based, fly-by and orbital observations, and looks ahead at the mysteries remaining for future missions to explore.