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Science 30 October 1970:
Vol. 170. no. 3957, pp. 535 - 537
DOI: 10.1126/science.170.3957.535
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Articles

Mercury: The Dark-Side Temperature

T. L. Murdock 1 and E. P. Ney 1

1 School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

The planet Mercury was observed before, during, and after the inferior conjunctions of 29 September 1969 and 9 May 1970 at wavelengths of 3.75, 4.75, 8.6, and 12 microns. The average dark-side temperature is 111° ± 3°K. The thermal inertia of the surface required to fit this temperature is close to that for the moon and indicates that Mercury and the moon have very similar top surface layers.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Preliminary Infrared Radiometry of the Night Side of Mercury from Mariner 10.
S. C. Chase, S. C. Chase, E. D. Miner, D. Morrison, G. Munch, G. Neugebauer, and M. Schroeder (1974)
Science 185, 142-145
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