When writing about the planet Mercury, there are many factors that come into mind. Before the existence of advanced studies about Mercury, it was once thought [taken from the book titled “The Universe” by David Bergamini and published in 1969] that Mercury faced one side of the Sun. According to “The Universe”, it was widely accepted that half of Mercury facing the Sun was hot while the other half was cold. It has been established that this is not the case. Mercury does not have enough atmosphere so it is exposed to temperatures ranging from – 170 degrees Celsius at night to 350 degrees Celsius during the day. Mercury is subject to heavy asteroids that has left craters such as the Caloris Basin.
The Caloris Basin is one of the largest craters in the Solar System measuring 1,300 kilometers across and is slightly larger than Great Britain. The Caloris Basin was discovered by the Mariner 10 Probe in 1974. While the Caloris Basin has been caused by the collision between Mercury and Asteroids, any spaceship can fully appreciate the impact by seeing the mountainous areas of Mercury opposite the Caloris Basin called the Caloris Montes. Mercury also contains the Borealis Quadrangle which surrounds the North Pole of Mercury to a 65 degree angle which contains the Goethe Basin and the crater known as Verdi. The reader must remember that as studies of Mercury are always evolving, scientists have a tendency to name many areas of a planet [including Mercury].
The Goethe Basin is an impact basin which measures 383 km and is at the latitude 78.5 N and 44.5 W situated in Mercury. It was named in honour of the German Philosopher Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. Another basin that exists in Mercury is the Shinakas Basin which is also known as the Solitudo Aphrodites. The Solitudo Aphrodites has a diameter of two thousand and three hundred kilometers with coordinates of eight degrees north and two hundred and eight degrees west. Solitudo Aphrodites was discovered by Boston University Scientists in the year 1998.
Mercury has been observed throughout history by scientists starting from those of the Assyrian Nation who recorded their observations around the 14th Century BC to the Greeks [who gave the name Apollo to Mercury when it was present during the day time and Hermes at night]. The Chinese were able to record their observations of Mercury with the presence of an Hour Star. The Hindus named Mercury “Buddha” in its observations. The Europeans such as Galileo, Kepler, Zupi, Bevis, and others were to leave their impact on the studies of Mercury until the arrival of Mariner 10 and further advanced studies.
REFERENCE:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/mercury/index.shtml
