60 | Mercury's Strange Behaviour

In this journey, we investigate the strange behavior of the Mercury, which had once been a great debate among astronomers.
Keywords: Mercury, Relativity, Einstein, BepiColombo
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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Science. We speak in science.We trust. Hi, this is science,
we speaking. Welcome to another episode. How are hitting everybody. I
hope you're all doing fine and we'reback again. I know that it's been

(00:24):
very long time. For some reasons, we could not publish new episodes for
I think almost six months or something, and from the beginning of the year.
If I'm not mistaken, there wasonly one episode for this year.
But hopefully we're back again in business. And even that is the case,
there has been new followers joint thanksa lot, really, I really appreciate

(00:48):
that. Speaking of which, letme quickly talk about some numbers. So
basically we have fifty thousand downloads andthis is really a huge number we have
here and I'm really glad. Alsothere are four thousand listeners from all over
the world, from one hundred tencountries. Maybe it's increased just now.

(01:10):
Well, I'm really happy. Thanksso for being a listener. And I
want to keep it really short andwant to say welcome. And you can
join our Instagram, Facebook and Telegramchannel communities. For each episode, you
can let me know what you think. You can write in the commands and
in Telegram channel. We will besharing science magazines for free. So today

(01:32):
I want to talk about Mercury aftera very long time. I want to
start. I want to kickstart witha soft episode that's not really complicated,
but we've got some ideas about it, I'm sure. And before probably we
had the smooth touch for the planet. Never got into too deep for the
matter. But let's take a closerlook to our tiny planet which is the

(01:53):
closest to the Sun, and let'sstart with theater basics to make you more
family with this small and created planetdoes not have any moons and zips around
the Sun faster than any other planetin the Solar System. Probably you didn't
know about it didn't have any moons. If you knew it, good for

(02:15):
you. And if we take alook back in the history, the Romans
named it after their swift footed messengergod, and these Marians also knew of
Mercury at least five thousand years ago, so it was often associated with Nebu,
the god of writing. According toa side connected to the NASA's Messenger

(02:38):
Mercury Surface Space Environment, Geochemistry,and Ranging, this is the name of
the mission the Messenger. So Mercurywas also given separate names for its appearance
as both a morning star and anevening star, very very similar to Yes

(02:59):
we Greek astronomers knew it, however, that the two names refer to the
same body, and Heraclitus around fivehundred before common era correctly thought that both
Mercury and Weenness orbited the Sun,not the Earth, and this might probably

(03:21):
influence also the universe model of Aristokus. If you remember that a stationary Sun
that was surrounded by the planets andorbiting around We had talked about Aristocus about
the episode for the hypatia If youremember so, let's now understand how is

(03:42):
the formation of the Mercury along withWeenness, Earth and Mars. Mercury is
one of the rocky planets has asolid surface that is coverted with craters like
our moon. If you have seenthe pictures, who got as close to
the Sun as Mercury is. Intwo twelve, the mission that we mentioned,

(04:06):
NASA's Messenger spacecraft discovered water eyes inthe craters around its north pole.
Like the Moon and the regions thatI was discovered, the regions may be
permanently shaded from the heat of theSun. Most likely the southern pole may

(04:28):
also contain icy pockets. By theway, speaking of the Moon lately,
I'm sure you heard of it.That Chandra and three by the Indian Space
Agency Mission Lunar Robot was landed onthe Moon successfully. We hope that a
lot of new information we will getfrom this mission. Anyway, let's get

(04:53):
back to the Mercury. So thesouthern pole may also contain icy pockets,
as I said, but message orbitdid not allow scientists to probe the area.
Comets or meteorites may have delivered theeyes there, and water vapor may
have outgased from the planet's interior andfrozen out at the poles. It also

(05:19):
has a thin atmosphere, and itdoesn't have any moons. As I said
earlier, Mercury, as far asI concerns, likes to keep things very
simple. It's spins slowly compared theEarth, so one day lasts a very
long time. So it takes,if they didn't know, fifty nine Earth

(05:43):
days to make one full rotation.After two months, it's going to make
one full rotation. But a yearof Mercury goes fast because it's the closest
planet to the Sun. As youmay guess, it goes around the Sun
in just eight eight Earth days,which is why we will talk today a

(06:03):
bit about this strange behavior. Solet's start with the historical investigation. In
eighteen fifty nine, the French mathematicianand astronomer Urban le Verrier reported that slow
procession of Mercury's orbit around the Suncould not be completely explained by Newtonian mechanics.

(06:28):
By the way, the procession forthose who do not know, let
me explain here. Procession refers todue to any of several gravity induced slow
and continuous changes in an astronomical bodiesrotational axis or orbital path. So back

(06:49):
to our issue. Le Verrier suggestedthat, among possible explanations and model,
planets might exist in an orbit evencloser to the Sun than that of Mercury
to account for this situation. Inthe early twentieth century, as you know

(07:10):
how famous guy Albert Einstein's General Theoryof relativity, it has provided that the
explanation for the observed procession by formalizinggravitation as being meditated by the curvature of
space time. And this effect isvery small, just zero point forty three

(07:33):
arc seconds per year or zero pointten arc second per orbital periods. For
Mercury. It therefore requires a littleof a twelve point five million orbits or
three million years for a full excessturn. Similar, but much smaller effects
exist for other Solar System bodies,like eight point sixty two arc seconds per

(07:59):
century four win is three point eightythree for Earth one point thirty five for
mass. You also had tests,of course, for the Einstein's relativity,
with several examples that There were threetests suggested by Einstein. These are the
peri helion procession of Mercury's orbit,the deflection of light by the Sun,

(08:24):
and the gravitational redshift of light.In general relativity, this remaining procession or
change of orientation of the orbital ellipsewithin its orbital plane, is explained by
gravitation being meditated by the curvature ofspace time. Technically, Einderstein showed that

(08:46):
the general relativity agrees closely with theobserved amount of pery helion shift. This
was a powerful fact motivating the adoptionof general relativity. Probably, you must
have seen the pattern of the planetthat most likely companies it generated simulations showing

(09:07):
that the planet makes a weird orbitsince it's very close to the Sun and
exposed this gravitational pool, which alsomakes this planet a little bit strange.
Mercury therefore has the most eccentric orbitsof all the planets in the Solar System.
The distance, on the other hand, from the Sun ranging from four

(09:28):
to six million to seventy million kilometers. Astromically speaking, there is another huge
number, but maybe we are talkingabout fourteen million kilometers. The varying distance
of Mercury to the Sun, whichis represented by the size of the planet,
also inversely proportionality Mercury's distance from theSun. This varying distance to the

(09:54):
Sun leads to Mercury's surface being flexedby tidal bulges raised by the Sun that
are about seventeen times stronger than themoons on Earth. The planet's rotation around
its axis also results in complex variationsof the surface temperature. Mercury's orbit is

(10:16):
inclined by seven degrees to the planeof earth orbit, the ecliptic, the
largest of all eight known solar planets. As a result, transits of Mercury
across the phase of the Sun canonly occur when the planet it's crossing the
plane of the Ecliptic at the timeit lies between Earth and the Sun,

(10:41):
which is in May or November.It was. This occurs about every seven
years on average. The next one, you're gonna have to take a look
at it. The European Space Agencyand the Japanese Space Agency lately developed and
launched a joint mission called Beppy Bombo, which will orbit Makery with two props,

(11:03):
one to map the planet and theother to study its magnetosphere well.
It was launched five years ago Octobotwenty two eighteen. Bepi Colombo is expected
to reach Mercury in twenty twenty five. It will release a magnus emeter rope

(11:26):
into an elliptical orbit, then chemicalrockets will fire to deposit the mapper probe
into a circular orbit. Both propeswill operate for the one terrestrial year.
The mapper probe carries an array ofspectrometers similar to those on Messenger, and

(11:48):
they will study the planet at manydifferent wavelengths, including infrared, ultraviolet,
X ray, and gamma ray.So BEPI Colombo conducted the first of its
six planned Mercury flybys, and withthis mission we will probably unravel more mysteries
that our solar system keeps. Formore up to date research, keep us

(12:13):
following, so I hope this episodewas helpful. You're gonna bit to understand
the unique behavior of the planet,and of course we will do our best
to release new episodes every week orweekend. I'm really glad that you have
not left me alone and this journey. There are still new followers and if

(12:35):
you like to see I hope tosee you again on the next episode State
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