Mercury and Venus Not to scale, but full view of both planets Mercury on left, Venus on the right. One is rocky and barren, the other is thick with atmosphere.

Mercury Mercury Messenger of the gods Mercury the Messenger of the gods, seen early morning. Messenger of the gods

General Features Only visible just before or after sunset Smallest by far Fastest moving No atmosphere Looks like our Moon! General features of Mercury -Fastest moving -No atmosphere -Only see it before sun rise or set- super close to the sun at all times! -Geologically dead -Like our moon it is locked with the sun- 2/3 ratio and rotates very slowly! -Looks like our moon with all the craters etc.

Up Close Craters Craters

Caloris Basin Large impact crater Created shock waves all over the planet! Weird features on the opposite side of the crater Caloris Basin -Very violent impact -Caused a strange feature to pop up on the other side of Mercury!

Opposite side Wave interference Weird- unusually hilly! -Unusually hilly- because of this one impact

Scarps of Mercury Like a shrinking apple Cooled quickly creating long cliffs Scarps of Mercury -Like a shrinking apple- shrunk and now there are huge cliffs!

Other information … Small magnetic field Temperature range is 1080 degrees! From 800F to -200 F Other information on Mercury -Small magnetic field- due to slow rotation and the iron core has solidified -Temperature range is from 1080 degrees- from 800 F to -280 F!

Venus Venus Goddess of beauty Goddess of Love and Beauty

General Features Only Visible before and after sunset Very bright “Morning or Evening Star” Very bright Hottest planet Retrograde rotation General features -Only visible near sunrise or sun set because it is so close to the sun! -Brightest planet in the sky because of clouds -Also the hottest planet because of the clouds- but has high winds so the temperature is constant all over the planet -Exhibits retrograde rotation- may have been hit by a very large object early in its history so it slowed it to stop then started to slowly rotate the other way. Rotates very slowly- 1 day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus! -The Sun will rise in the West and set in the East (if you could see it from the surface!)

Venus’ Clouds Thick swirling clouds Full of concentrated sulfuric acid Taken by Venus Express- ESA space probe In Ultraviolet Venus’ Clouds -Very thick swirling clouds- full of concentrated of sulfuric acid -This picture was taken by the Venus express satellite- ESA in UV -These clouds are 18-25 miles thick! -Pressure is 98 atm (98 times that here at the surface of Earth!)

Infrared cloud storm -There is no magnetic field (rotates so slowly!) -Temperature is around 900 F all over (due to winds) -There are mysterious bursts of radio-waves- perhaps from lightening, but we are not sure!

Russian Space probe - Russian space probe- Venera 13 in the early 80’s- lasted for 53 minutes -This is close to true color- why did it die so quickly?

More Russian Pictures -Clouds are very apparent over the horizon, makes a huge difference

Venus’ surface Venus’ surface mapped by Magellan -Radar images to see through the clouds- You can see Ishtar terra with Maxwell Mons at the very North of Venus

Venus Shoebox Topography Lab Directions: Answer the pre-lab questions, be sure to have a hypothesis before you move on to the activity. Poke your stick through the holes in the top of the shoe box and record your depth by holding the stick with your fingers as close to the lid as possible. Measure the distance from the tip of the stick to your fingers. Graph this When graph is complete, remove lid and check your drawing. Answer the post-lab questions.

10cm 5cm 10cm 10cm 5cm 10cm 7cm 5cm 7cm 10cm 5cm 7cm 10cm 5cm 10cm 7cm 5cm 5cm 5cm 5cm 7cm 7cm 10cm 10cm 5cm 5cm 7cm 10cm 5cm

Groups of 3-4 Get supplies 1 box 1 skewer 1 ruler GO!