Mercury Watch
Mercury Research Projects

Below is a list of projects currently devoted to Mercury research. Send a short description of your project to the web site manager for listing on this page.


Atmospheric emission
Method: Echelle Spectrograph with 10 arc sec image slicer
Telescope: 1.6 meter McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory
Investigator: Andrew Potter, Rosemary Killen and Tom Morgan
Institute: National Solar Observatory, Kitt Peak, Arizona, USA



Atmospheric emission
Method: Echelle spectroscopy
Telescope: 61-inch Mt. Bigelow Cassegrain
Investigator: Ann Sprague and Richard Hill
Institute: Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, USA



INTAS Mercury Project
Aim: A physical model of Mercurys regolith
Method: Visual and near-infrared imaging, polarimetry and spectroscopy
Telescopes: T.B.D.
Investigator: Nick Thomas
Institute: Max Planck Institut für Aeronomie, Lindau, Germany



Radar observations of Mercury
Aim: We hope to get an interactive topography database on-line soon for Mercury. Generally, we get ~70-80% of our requests for antenna time for Mercury. Goldstone Radar has been out-of-service since November 1998 during the upgrade of our transmitter to a new center frequency of 8560.0 MHz and a bandwidth of +/- 60 MHz around this center. We expect a return to service roughly mid-March 1999.
Investigator: Martin Slade
Institute:Goldstone Radar, Jet propulsion Laboratory, USA



Regolith properties of Mercury
Aim: Mapping of spatial and abundance variegation of minerals in the regolith
Method: Visual and near-infrared imaging, photometry and spectroscopy
Telescopes: Swedish Vacuum Solar Telescope (SVST), Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT)
Investigator: Johan Warell and Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist
Institute: Astronomiska Observatoriet, Uppsala University, Sweden



ALPO observations
Aim: To capture albedo markings on the surface
Method: CCD imaging with red filters
Telescopes: Celestron 8-inch f/10
Investigator: Frank J Melillo and other ALPO members
Institute: Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO)



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