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Mercury

Specialty Definition: Mercury

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Specialty Definition: Bristol Mercury

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Mercury was a 9 cylinder one-row radial aircraft engine that was developed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1925, as their Bristol Jupiter was reaching the end of its lifespan. At first there was little interest in an engine that was the same power as the Jupiter, but eventually the Air Ministry funded three prototypes and it became clear the design was another winner for Roy Fedden.

With the widespread introduction of superchargers to the aero industry, Fedden felt it was reasonable to use a small amount of boost at all times in order to improve performance of an otherwise smaller engine. Instead of designing an entirely new block, the existing Jupiter parts were re-used with the stoke reduced by one inch. The now-smaller capacity engine was then boosted back to Jupiter power levels, while running at higher RPM and thus requiring a reduction gear for the propeller. The same techniques were applied to the original Jupiter-sized engine to produce the Pegasus.

The Mercury's smaller size was aimed at fighter use, and it powered the Gloster Gauntlet and then its successor, the Gloster Gladiator. It was intended that the larger Pegasus would be for bomberss, but as the power ratings of both engines rose the Mercury found itself being used in almost all roles. Perhaps its most famous use was in a twin-engine light bomber, the Bristol Blenheim.

Specifications

For the Mercury VIII:

Bore / Stroke / Displacement: 5.75" x 6.5", 1519 cu in (24.9 litre)

Compression ratio: 7:1

HP: 840 hp at 2750 RPM (max continuous), 730 hp at 2650 RPM (take-off)

Weight: 980 lbs

The Bristol Mercury was a newspaper from Bristol, published in the 1800s.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Bristol Mercury."

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Hermes

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

For other meanings see Hermes (disambiguation)

Hermes ("pile of marker stones"), in Greek mythology, was the god of travelers, shepherds, land travel, orators, literature, cunning, poets, athletics, weights and measures, and thieves, and the messenger from the gods to humans. Son of Zeus and a nymph named Maia, Hermes was equivalent to the Roman god Mercury and the Etruscan Turms. Hermes was born in a cave on Mt. Cyllene in Peloponnesus, between Achaia and Arcadia. His origin on Mt. Cyllene explains the origin of an epithet for Hermes: Hermes Cylleneius. He was also referred to as Enagonios. As a psychopomp, Hermes was known as Psychopompos ("conductor of the soul"). The Roman Mercury later absorbed the Dei Lucrii, early gods of commerce and wealth, and were referred to by that name. Hermes was also later combined with the Egyptian Anubis to form Hermanubis.

Obviously the name Hermes Trismegistus was used later by alchemists and their like to refer to a mixture-god combining elements from Hermes and the egyptian god Thoth.

The modern post office in Greece uses Hermes as its symbol.

Worship

Hermes was worshipped especially fervently by travelers, pilgrims, thieves and poets. Though temples to Hermes existed throughout Greece, Arcadia was a center of his cult. Hermoea were the festivals in his honor, also especially prevalent in Arcadia.

Hermes was a psychopomp, meaning he brought newly-dead souls to the underworld, Hades. He also brought dreams to living mortals.

In addition to the flute and the lyre, Hermes invented many types of racing and the entire sport of boxing. Statues of Hermes stood at stadia and gymnasiums throughout Greece.

Hermai

In very ancient Greece, before his role as protector of merchants and travelers, Hermes was a phallic god, associated with fertility, luck, roads and borders. His name comes the word herma referring to a square or rectangular pillar of stone, or bronze; a bust of Hermes' head, usually with a beard, sat on the top of the pillar, and male genitals adorned the base. The hermai were used to mark roads and borders. In Athens, they were placed outside houses for good luck.

In 415 BCE, when the Athenian fleet was about to set sail for Syracuse during the Peloponnesian War, all of the Athenian hermai were vandalized. Though it was never proven, the Athenians at the time believed it was the work of saboteurs, either from Syracuse or anti-war doves from Athens itself.

Hermes In Art

Hermes was usually portrayed wearing a broad-brimmed or winged cap, winged sandals and the herald's staff. He wore the garments of a traveler, worker or shepherd. He was represented by purses, roosters and turtles.

Birth

Hermes was born on Mt. Cyllene in Arcadia. The story is told in the Hymn to Hermes attributed to Homer. His mother, Maia, had been secretly impregnated by Zeus, in a secret affair. Maia wrapped the infant in blankets but Hermes escaped while she was asleep. Hermes ran to Thessaly, where Apollo was grazing his cattle. The infant Hermes stole a number of his cows and took them to a cave in the woods near Pylos, covering their tracks. In the cave, he found a tortoise and killed it, then removed the insides. He used one of the cow's intestines and the tortoise shell and made the first lyre. Apollo complained to Maia that her son had stolen his cattle, but Hermes had already replaced himself in the blankets she had wrapped him in, so Maia refused to believe Apollo's claim. Zeus intervened and claimed to have seen the events, and siding with Apollo. Hermes then began to play music on the lyre he had invented. Apollo, a god of music, fell in love with the instrument and offered to allow exchange the cattle for the lyre. Hence, Apollo became a master of the lyre and Hermes invented a kind of pipes-instrument called a syrinx.

While Hermes was stealing Apollo's cattle, a shepherd named Battus witnessed it. Hermes made him swear to keep silent; Battus didn't and Hermes turned him to stone.

Adulthood

Hermes later invented the flute, which he bartered with Apollo (or Zeus) for, gaining a golden wand that Hermes used as his staff (see caduceus).

Hermes' Offspring

Pan

Pan was the son of Hermes and Dryope, a human princess. She was terrified of her ugly, half-goat baby so she ran away. Hermes took the baby to Mt. Olympus, where gods enjoyed the child's laughter and good nature. He became a god worshipped by shepherds and woodsmen particularly.

Abderus

Abderus was a son of Hermes who was devoured by the Mares of Diomedes. He had gone to the Mares with his friend, Heracles.

Hermaphroditus

Hermaphroditus was the third son of Hermes, with Aphrodite. He was changed into a hermaphrodite by the gods, responding to the pleas of Salmacis, whose love Hermaphroditus spurned.

Other Stories

Herse/Aglaulus/Pandrosus

When Hermes loved Herse, a jealous Aglaulus stood between them and refused to move. Hermes changed her to stone. Cephalus was the son of Hermes and Herse. Hermes also had a son, Ceryx, with Herse's other sister, Pandrosus. With Aglaulus, Hermes was the father of Eumolpus.

Argus/Io

Zeus loved the Argive princess Io and changed her into a cow to protect her from Hera. Hera suspected his deception and asked for the cow as a present. Zeus was unable to refuse and she placed the watchman Argus to guard the cow. Hermes, at the request of Zeus, lulled Argus to sleep and rescued Io but Hera sent a gadfly to sting her as she wandered the earth in cow form. Zeus eventually changed her back to human form, and she became — through Epaphus, her son with Zeus — the ancestress of Heracles.

Other Roles

Hermes saved Odysseus from both Calypso and Circe, by convincing the first to let him go and preparing Odysseus with an herb to protect him from Circe's spells. In addition, Hermes brought Eurydice back to Hades after Orpheus lost her for a second time. He also changed the Minyades into bats. He taught the Thriae the arts of fortune-telling and divination.

King Atreus of Mycenae retook the throne from his brother, Thyestes using advice he received from the wise trickster Hermes. Thyestes agreed to give the kingdom back when the sun moved backwards in the sky, a feat that Zeus accomplished. Atreus retook the throne and banished Thyestes.

Consorts/Children

1. Aphrodite
   1. Eunomia
   2. Hermaphroditus
   3. Peitho
   4. Rhodos
   5. Tyche
2. Aglaulus
   1. Eumolpus
3. Herse
   1. Cephalus
4. Pandrosus
   1. Ceryx
5. Unknown mother
   1. Abderus
   2. Aethalides
   3. Echion
   4. Myrtilus
   5. Pan
6. Unknown Sicilian nymph
   1. Daphnis

External link

• You can find more information, original sources and images at http://www.elolimpo.com/personajes/personaje.asp?IdPer=1

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Hermes."

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Mercury

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The name Mercury refers to many articles in Wikipedia:

• Mercury, a Roman god.
• Mercury, the first planet from the Sun in our solar system.
• Mercury, the chemical element.
• The Mercury space program.
• Mercury programming language.
• Mercury, a brand of automobiles.
• Mercury, France, a commune in the Savoie département of France.
• Mercury, a former British telco.
• Bristol Mercury, 9-cylinder aircraft engine.
• Freddie Mercury, singer of the group Queen.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mercury."

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Mercury (element)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

General
Name, Symbol, Number	Mercury, Hg, 80
Chemical series	transition metals
Group, Period, Block	12 (IIB), 6 , d
Density, Hardness	13579.04 kg/m3, 1.5
Appearance	Silvery white
Atomic Properties
Atomic weight	200.59 amu
Atomic radius (calc.)	150 (171) pm
Covalent radius	149 pm
van der Waals radius	155 pm
Electron configuration	[Xe]44f14 5d10 6s2
e- 's per energy level	2, 8, 18, 32, 18, 2
Oxidation states (Oxide)	2, 1 (mildly basic)
Crystal structure	Rhombohedral
Physical Properties
State of matter	Liquid (__)
Melting point	234.32 K (-37.89 °F)
Boiling point	629.88 K (674.11 °F)
Molar volume	14.09 ×1010-3 m3/mol
Heat of vaporization	59.229 kJ/mol
Heat of fusion	2.295 kJ/mol
Vapor pressure	0.0002 Pa at 234 K
Speed of sound	1407 m/s at 293.15 K
Miscellaneous
Electronegativity	2.00 (Pauling scale)
Specific heat capacity	140 J/(kg*K)
Electrical conductivity	1.04 106/m ohm
Thermal conductivity	8.34 W/(m*K)
1st ionization potential	1007.1 kJ/mol
2nd ionization potential	1810 kJ/mol
3rd ionization potential	3300 kJ/mol
Most Stable Isotopes
iso NA half-life DM DE MeV DP 194Hg {syn.} 444 y &epsilon 0.040 194Au 196Hg 0.15% Hg is stable with 116 neutrons 198Hg 9.97% Hg is stable with 118 neutrons 199Hg 16.87% Hg is stable with 119 neutrons 200Hg 23.1% Hg is stable with 120 neutrons 201Hg 13.18% Hg is stable with 121 neutrons 202Hg 29.86% Hg is stable with 122 neutrons 204Hg 6.87% Hg is stable with 124 neutrons
SI units & STP are used except where noted.

Mercury, also called quicksilver, is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. A heavy, silvery, toxic, transition metal, mercury is one of only two elements that are liquid at everyday temperature (the other is Bromine) and is used in thermometers, barometers and other scientific apparatus. Mercury is mostly obtained by reduction from the mineral cinnabar.

Notable Characteristics

Mercury is a heavy, silvery-white univalent and bivalent transition metal that is a relatively poor conductor of heat but a decent conductor of electricity and is the only common metal that is liquid at room temperature (forming an opaque glistening liquid).

Mercury easily forms alloys with almost all common metals, including gold and silver but not iron. Any of these alloys is called an amalgam.

The freezing point of mercury is -40 ° Celsius which is the same as -40 ° Fahrenheit. This is the only point at which these two temperature scales coincide.

This metal also has uniform volumetric thermal expansion, is less reactive than zinc and cadmium and does not displace hydrogen from acids. Common oxidation states of this element are; mercurous, or +1, and mercuric, or +2. Rare instances of +3 mercury compounds exist.

Applications

Most mercury is used for the manufacture of industrial chemicals and for electrical and electronic applications. In addition, mercury is widely used in thermometers, especially ones which are used to measure high temperatures. Other uses;

• The ease with which it forms amalgams with gold has resulted in its use in gold recovery from ores.
• In addition to thermometers, mercury is used in barometers, diffusion pumps, and many other laboratory instruments.
• The triple point of mercury, -38.8344 °C, is a fixed point used as a temperature standard for the International Temperature Scale (ITS-90).
• Gaseous mercury is used in mercury-vapor lamps and advertising signs.

Miscellaneous uses; mercury switches, pesticides, dental amalgams/preparations, mercury cells for caustic soda and chlorine production, anti-fouling paint, electrode in some types of electrolysis, batteries (mercury cells), and catalysts.

History

Mercury was known to the ancient Chinese and Hindus and was found in Egyptian tombs that date from 1500s BC. By 500 BC it was used to make amalgams with other metals. The ancient Greekss used this toxic metal in ointments and the Romans used it in cosmetics. Alchemists thought it to be the stuff from which all matter was formed and they also thought that when it hardened it turned into gold.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, mercury nitrate was used to remove fur from the animal skins from which felt hats were made. This caused many cases of brain damage among hatters, or milliners, leading, it is claimed, to the simile "as mad as a hatter", and thereby to the Mad Hatter of Alice in Wonderland fame.

It was named by alchemists after the Roman god Mercury. Its symbol Hg comes from hydrargyrum, a Latinised form of the Greek word hydrargyros, which was a compound word whose Greek roots meant 'water' and 'silver'. Mercury is one of the few elements that has an alchemical symbol. If you have the right browser and font to support Unicode, you should see the symbol here: ☿.

Occurrence

A rare element in the earth's crust, mercury is found either as a native metal (rare) or in cinnabar, corderoite, livingstonite, and other minerals with cinnabar (HgS) being the most common ore. Approximately 50% of the global supply comes from Spain and Italy with much of the rest coming from Yugoslavia, Russia, and North America. The metal is extracted by heating cinnabar in a current of air and by condensing the vapor.

Compounds

The most important salts are:

• mercury chloride (which is very corrosive, sublimates and is a violent poison)
• mercurous chloride (which is calomel and is sometimes still used in medicine)
• mercury fulminate, (a detonator widely used in explosives), and
• mercuric sulfide (used to make vermilion which is a high-grade paint pigment).

Organic mercury compoundss are also important. Laboratory test have found that electrical discharge causes the noble gases neon, argon, krypton, and xenon to combine with mercury vapor. The products of this combination are held together with van der Waals forces and result in HgNe, HgAr, HgKr, and HgXe. Methyl mercury is a dangerous compound that is widely found as a pollutant in water bodies and streams.

Isotopes

There are seven stable isotopes of mercury with Hg-202 being the most abundant (26.86%). The longest-lived radioisotopes are Hg-194 with a half-life of 444 years, and Hg-203 with a half-life of 46.612 days. Most of the remaining radioisotopes have half-lifes that are less than a day.

Precautions

Mercury is highly toxic in both liquid and gaseous forms. This is a toxic heavy metal that causes brain and liver damage if it is ingested. For this reason, thermometers which are only intended to measure typical climatic temperatures now use pigmented alcohol instead; the boiling point of alcohol is higher than any natural temperature expected on Earth. Some medical thermometers still use mercury, for reason of accuracy. Care must be exercised not to bite such a thermometer. The commercial unit for handling mercury is the "flask," which weighs 76 lb.

Mercury is a very dangerous bioaccumulative toxin that is easily absorbed through skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal tissues. Minamata disease is a form of mercury poisoning. Mercury attacks the central nervous system and adversely affects the mouth, gums, and teeth. High exposure over long periods of time will result in brain damage and ultimately death. Air saturated with mercury vapor at room temperature is at a concentration many times the toxic level, despite the high boiling point (the danger is increased at higher temperatures). Mercury should therefore be handled with great care. Containers of mercury need to be covered securely to avoid spillage and evaporation. Heating of mercury or mercury compounds should always be done under a well-ventilated hood; some oxides in particular can decompose into elemental mercury, which immediately evaporates and may not be obvious.

External Links

• WebElements.com - Mercury
• EnvironmentalChemistry.com - Mercury

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mercury (element)."

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Mercury (mythology)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Mercury is a Roman god, also known as the Roman god of trade, profit and commerce. His name is apparently derived from the Latin merx or mercator, a merchant. He is very similar to the Greek god Hermes (which see for more details) and the Etruscan Turms.

His temple on the Circus Maximus, on the Aventine Hill, was built in 495 BC.

On May 15, the Mercuralia was held in his honor; merchants sprinkled water from his sacred well near the Porta Capena on their heads.

Mercury became extremely popular among the nations the Roman Empire conquered. The Celts equated him with their main god Lugus, and Germans equated him with Wodan.

He was called Mercurius in Latin and Alipes ("with the winged feet")

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mercury (mythology)."

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Mercury (planet)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

simple:Mercury

Mercury Orbital characteristics Avg Dist from Sol 0.387AU Mean radius 57,910,000 km Eccentricity 0.20563069 Orbital period 87d 23.3h Synodic period 115.88 days Avg. Orbital Speed 47.8725 km/s Inclination 7.004° Number of satellitess 0 Physical characteristics Equatorial diameter 4879.4 km Surface area 7.5 × 107 km2 Mass 3.302×1023 kg Mean density 5.43 g/cm3 Surface gravity 2.78 m/s2 Rotation period 58d 15.5088h Axial tilt 0° Albedo 0.10-0.12 Escape Speed 4.25 km/s Avg. Surface temp: Day 623 K Avg. Surface temp: Night 103 K Surface temp min mean max 90 K 440 K 700 K Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure trace Potassium 31.7% Sodium 24.9% Atomic Oxygen 9.5% Argon 7.0% Helium 5.9% Molecular Oxygen 5.6% Nitrogen 5.2% Carbon dioxide 3.6% Water 3.4% Hydrogen 3.2%

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. This is the second-smallest planet within Earth's solar system. Upon the celestial sphere, Mercury ranges from -0.4 to 5.5, in apparent magnitude; Mercury is sufficiently "close" to Sol that telescopes rarely examine it. Mercury has no natural satellites. The only spacecraft to approach Mercury was Mariner 10 (1974-75); only 40-45% of the planet has been mapped. The astronomical symbol for Mercury is a circle on top of a short vertical line with a cross below and a semicircle above the circle.

Physical characteristics

Atmosphere

Mercury has only trace amounts of an atmosphere. The atmosphere of Mercury is extremely thin; indeed, gas molecules in Mercury's atmosphere collide with the surface of the planet more frequently than they collide with each other; for most purposes Mercury should be considered as being airless. The "atmosphere" is primarily composed of oxygen, potassium, and sodium.

The atoms that compose Mercury's atmosphere are continually being lost to space, with the average "lifespan" of a potassium or sodium being approximately ~3 hours (during the Mercurian day -- and only half that at perihelion). The lost atmosphere is continually replenished by several mechanisms; solar wind captured by the planetary magnetic field, vapor produced by micrometeor impacts, direct thermal evaporation of the polar ice, and/or outgassing.

Temperature and Sunlight

The mean surface temperature of Mercury is 452K, but it ranges from 90-700K; by comparison, the temperature on Earth varies by only ~11K (with respect only to solar radiation; not climate or season). The sunlight on Mercury's surface is 6.3 times more intense than that on Earth, a total irradiance of 3566W/m².

Terrain

Mercury's cratered surface appears very similar to Luna. Mercury's most distinctive surface feature (of what has been photographed) is Caloris Basin, a impact crater ~1350km in diameter. The planet is marked with scarps, which apparently formed billions of years ago as Mercury's core cooled and shrank causing the crust to wrinkle. The majority of Mercury's surface is covered with plains of two distinct ages; the younger plains are less heavily cratered and probably formed when lava flows buried earlier terrain. In addition, Mercury has "significant" tidal bulges.

See also: List of craters on Mercury

Interior Composition

The planet has a relatively large iron core (even when compared to Earth) and is, therefore, much denser; Mercury's composition is approximately 70% metallic and 30% silicate. The average density is 5430kg/m³; which is slightly less than Earth's density. The reason that Mercury, with so much iron, has less density than Earth; is that, the overall mass of Earth compresses the planet and creates a high density. Mercury only has 5.5% of Earth's mass. The iron core fills 42% of the planetary volume (Earth's core only fills 17%). Surrounding the core is a 600km mantle.

Mercurian Orbit

The orbit of Mercury is eccentric, ranging from 46M-70Mkm in radius. The slow precession of this orbit around the sun could not be completely explained by Newtonian Classical Mechanics, and for some time it was thought that another planet might be present in an orbit even closer to the sun (sometimes referred to as Vulcan) to account for this perturbation. Einstein's General Theory of Relativity provided the explanation for this small discrepancy instead, however.

Mercurian Rotation

At certain points on Mercury's surface, an observer (standing upon one of the tidal bulges) would be able to see the Sun rise about halfway, then reverse and set, then rise again; all within the same Mercurian day. This is because approximately four days prior to perihelion, Mercury's orbital velocity exactly equals its rotational velocity; such that, Sol's apparent motion ceases; and, at perihelion, Mercury's orbital velocity exceeds the rotational velocity; thus, Sol appears to retrograde. Four days after perihelion, the Sun's normal apparent motion resumes.

Until radar observations in 1965 proved otherwise it was thought that Mercury was tidally locked with the Sun, rotating once for each orbit and keeping the same face directed towards the sun at all times. Instead, Mercury has a 3:2 spin-orbit-coupling, rotating three times for every two revolutions around the Sun; the eccentrity of Mercury's orbit makes this resonance stable. The original reason astronomers thought it was tidally locked was because whenever Mercury was best placed for observation, it was always at the same point in its 3:2 resonance, so showing the same face, which would be also the case if it was totally locked. Mercury rotates 59 times slower than Earth.

Because of Mercury's 3:2 spin-orbit-coupling; although a sidereal day (the period of rotation) lasts ~58.7 Earth days, a solar day (the length between two meridian transitss of Sol) lasts ~176 Earth days.

The Mercurian Magnetosphere

Despite its slow rotation, Mercury has a relatively strong magnetosphere; with 1% of the magnetic field strength generated by Earth. It is possible that this magnetic field is generated in a manner similar to Earth's, by a dynamo of circulating liquid core material; current estimates suggest that Mercury's core is not hot enough to liquefy nickel-iron, but it is possible that materials with a lower melting point such as sulfur may be responsible. It is also possible that Mercury's magnetic field is a remnant of an eariler dynamo effect that has now ceased, the magnetic field becoming "frozen" in solidified magnetic materials.

Why Does Mercury Have So Much Iron?

Mercury has a higher iron percentage than any other object within the system. Several theories have been proposed to explain Mercury's high metallicity.

One theory suggests that Mercury originally had a metal-silicate ratio similar to common chondrite meteors and a mass approximately 2.25 times its current mass, but that early in the solar system's history Mercury was struck by a planetesimal of approximately 1/6 that mass. The impact would have stripped away much of the original crust and mantle; leaving the core behind. A similar theory has been proposed to explain the formation of Earth's Moon, see giant impact theory. Alternately, Mercury may have formed very early in the history of the solar nebula, before Sol's energy output had stabilized. Mercury starts out with approximately twice its current mass in this theory; but, as the protostar contracted, temperatures near Mercury could have been between 2500-3500K; and possibly even as high as 10000K. Much of Mercury's surface rock would have vaporized at such temperatures, forming an atmosphere of "rock vapor" which would have been carried away by the nebular wind. A third theory, similar to the second, argues that the outer layers of Mercury were "eroded" by the solar wind over a longer period of time.

Ice on Mercury

Radar observations first indicated, in 1992, that there is frozen water ice at Mercury's north pole. Such water is believed to exist at the permanently shaded bottoms of craters, where it is deposited by comets and/or gases from the planetary core.

The Exploration of Mercury

Mercury has been known since at least the time of the Sumerians (3rd millennium BC), who called it Ubu-idim-gud-ud. The earliest recorded detailed observations were made by the Babylonians, who called it gu-ad or gu-utu. It was given two names by the ancient Greeks, Apollo when visible in the morning sky and Hermes when visible in the evening, but Greek astronomers knew that the two names referred to the same body. Heraclitus even believed that Mercury and Venus orbited the Sun, not the Earth. Observation of Mercury is severely complicated by its proximity to the Sun; it is only visible from Earth at sunrise or sunset.

The only spacecraft to approach Mercury was Mariner 10 (1974-75)

A mission to Mercury has been approved by NASA, named MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging), which will launch in 2004 and reach Mercury in 2009.

Japan and the ESA

Japan is planning a joint mission with the European Space Agency that would be the first to land a probe on Mercury. The mission entails three probes, two that would orbit and one that would land, to map the topography and study the origins of the planet. Russian Soyuz rockets would launch the probes starting in 2010. The probes would reach Mercury about four years later, with one of them landing on the planet, and the other two orbiting and charting its surface for a year.

External links

• NASA's Mercury Exploration Program
• ESA's Mission to Mercury
• SolarViews.Com

References

• Discovering the Essential Universe by Neil F. Comins (2001)

The Solar System

Sun - Mercury - Venus - Earth - Mars - Asteroids - Jupiter - Saturn - Uranus - Neptune - Pluto - Comets - Kuiper belt - Oort cloud

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mercury (planet)."

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Mercury automobile

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Mercury is an automobile brand name of the Ford Motor Company founded in 1939 to market semi-luxury cars slotted between entry-level Ford and luxury Lincoln models. To this day most Mercury models are based on Ford brand platforms. Mercury was its own division at Ford until 1959 when it was combined with Lincoln and the ill-fated Edsel into the Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln Division; with the demise of Edsel, it's been in the Lincoln-Mercury Division ever since.

Mercury, like the defunct Edsel was created from scratch, rather than being a takeover of an existing company like Lincoln. Mercury's heyday was in the 1950's, when its formula of stretching and lowering existing Ford platforms was very successful.

With a range consisting of only four vehicles right now, all even more thinly disguised Fords than ever, many industry observers question whether Mercury will survive in the long term. Its alliance with Lincoln has so far kept it alive; all Lincoln dealers also sell Mercury vehicles, and they desire some lower-priced vehicles in their showrooms.

List of Mercury automobiles

• Mercury Bobcat
• Mercury Caliente
• Mercury Capri
• Mercury Colony Park
• Mercury Comet
• Mercury Commuter
• Mercury Custom
• Mercury Cougar
• Mercury Cyclone
• Mercury Eight
• Mercury Grand Marquis
• Mercury LN7
• Mercury Lynx
• Mercury Marauder
• Mercury Marquis
• Mercury Montclair
• Mercury Monterey (1952- )
• Mercury Mountaineer (1997 - )
• Mercury Medalist
• Mercury Meteor
• Mercury Monarch
• Mercury Montego
• Mercury Mystique
• Mercury Parklane
• Mercury S-55
• Mercury Sable
• Mercury Topaz
• Mercury Tracer
• Mercury Turnpike Cruiser
• Mercury Villager (1993- )
• Mercury Voyager
• Mercury Zephyr

See also: List of automobile manufacturers

External links

• Mercury Vehicles

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mercury automobile."

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Mercury program

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Mercury program was the United States's first successful manned spaceflight program. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a man in orbit around the Earth. Early planning and research was carried out by NACA, while the program was officially carried out by the newly created NASA. The name Mercury comes from the Roman god (it is also the name of the innermost planet of the solar system).

Spacecraft

Mercury spacecraft were very small one-man craft; it was said that the Mercury spacecraft were not ridden, they were worn. The spacecraft had only attitude and reentry thrusters. They could not effect any orbital changes apart from the reentry burn. The spacecraft were designed to be totally controllable from the ground in the event that the space environment impaired the pilot's ability to function. Suborbital Mercury capsules used heat-sink beryllium heat shields, orbital ones used ablative shields.

Boosters

The Mercury program used three boosters: Little Joe, Redstone, and Atlas. Little Joe and Redstone were used for suborbital flights, Atlas for orbital ones. The Atlas boosters required extra strengthening in order to handle the increased weight of the Mercury capsules beyond that of the nuclear warheads they were designed for. Little Joe was a solid-propellant booster designed specially for the Mercury program.

Astronauts

Mercury had seven prime astronauts, all former military test pilots, known as the "Mercury 7."

• Alan B. Shepard, Jr
• Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom
• John H. Glenn. Jr
• M. Scott Carpenter
• Walter M. Schirra, Jr
• L. Gordon Cooper, Jr
• Donald K. "Deke" Slayton

Flights

The program included 20 unmanned launches. Not all of these were intended to reach space and not all were successful in their objectives. The fifth flight in 1959 launched a monkey named Sam into space. Other non-human space-farers were Miss Sam the monkey and Ham and Enos, both chimpanzees.

Unmanned

• Little Joe 1 - test of launch escape system during flight
• Big Joe 1 - test of heat shield
• Little Joe 6 - Test of capsule aerodynamics and integrity
• Little Joe 1A - same as Litte Joe 1
• Little Joe 2 - carried Sam the monkey to 85 kilometres in altitude
• Little Joe 1B - carried Miss Sam the monkey to 14 kilometres in altitude
• Beach Abort - test of the Off-The-Pad abort system
• Mercury-Atlas 1 - first flight of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster
• Little Joe 5 - first flight of a production Mercury spacecraft
• Mercury-Redstone 1 - the day they launched the tower
• Mercury-Redstone 1A - first flight of Mercury spacecraft and Redstone booster
• Mercury-Redstone 2 - carried Ham the Chimpanzee on suborbital flight
• Mercury-Atlas 2 - test of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster
• Little Joe 5A - test of the launch escape system during the most severe conditions of a launch
• Mercury BD - test of redstone booster
• Mercury-Atlas 3 - test of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster
• Little Joe 5B - test of the launch escape system during the most severe conditions of a launch
• Mercury-Atlas 4 - test of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster
• Mercury-Scout 1 - test of Mercury tracking network
• Mercury-Atlas 5 - carried Enos the Chimpanzee on a two orbit flight

Manned

Suborbital

• Mercury 3 (Freedom 7) - 5 May 1961
• Mercury 4 (Liberty Bell 7) - 21 July 1961

Orbital

• Mercury 6 (Friendship 7) - 20 February 1962
• Mercury 7 (Aurora 7) - 24 May 1962
• Mercury 8 (Sigma 7) - 3 October 1962
• Mercury 9 (Faith 7) - 15 May 1963

(Mercury 5 was an orbital flight manned by Enos the chimp.) A seventh flight (MA-10) was cancelled due to a need to move onto the Gemini program but would have probably been flown by Alan Shepard. On June 12, 1963 NASA Administrator James Webb told Congress the program was complete.

Follow On Programs

• Gemini program
• Apollo program

Further reading

• Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff. Sentimental, from the astronaut viewpoint, not meant to be taken as a strict history, but fascinating anyway.
• James M. Grimwood, This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury (online at [1])
• James M. Grimwood, Project Mercury - A Chronology (online at [1])
• Mae Mills Link, Space Medicine In Project Mercury (online at [1])

External link

• http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/history/mercury/mercury.htm

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mercury program."

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Mercury programming language

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Mercury is a functional/logical programming language based on Prolog, but designed to be more useful for real-world programming problems.

Mercury is compiled rather than interpreted as is traditional for logic languages, it has a sophisticated, strict type and mode system which, when combined with the abstract nature of logic programming, is claimed by its authors to make writing reliable programs simpler and faster than by more conventional means. Mercury's module system also makes it easy to divide logic programs up into self-contained modules, a problem for logic programs in the past.

A sample piece of programming in Mercury looks like

:- module hello_world.
:- interface.
:- import_module io.
:- pred main(io__state, io__state).
:- mode main(di, uo) is det.
:- implementation.
main -->
	io__write_string("Hello, World!\
").

(by Ralph Brecket at the University of Melbourne):

Mercury is developed at the University Of Melbourne Computer Science department under the supervision of Dr. Zoltan Somogyi.

See also:

• functional programming

External Links

• Official Mercury Homepage

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mercury programming language."

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Mercury Records

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Mercury Records was a record label founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge. They were a major force in jazz and blues, classical music, rock and roll, and country music recordings.

Early in their history, Mercury opened two pressing plants, one in Chicago and the other in St. Louis, Missouri. With the use of automatic presses and providing 24-hour turnaround, they went into direct competition with major recording labels such as Columbia, Decca, and RCA Victor.

Mercury Record sleeve artwork, c.1950

By hiring two promoters, Tiny Hill and Jimmy Hilliard, they penetrated the pop market with names such as Frankie Laine, Vic Damone and Patti Page.

The company released an enormous number of recordings under the Mercury label as well as its subsidiaries (Blue Rock, Cumberland Records, Emarcy, Fontana, Limelight, Phillips, Smash, and Wing). In addition, they leased and purchased material by independent labels and redistributed them.

Under their own label, Mercury released all kinds of recordings from classical music to psychedelic rock. However, its subsidiaries focused on their own specialized categories of music.

In 1961 the Dutch company, Philips of Holland, signed an exchange agreement with Mercury, and Philips subsequently bought Mercury and its subsidiary labels. In 1962 Philips merged with Deutsche Polydor to become PolyGram in the early 1970s.

List of record labels

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mercury Records."

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Abbreviations & Acronyms: Mercury

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Synonyms within Context: Mercury

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Modern Usage: Mercury

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Commercial Usage: Mercury

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Image Slideshow: Mercury

Photos: Mercury More pictures...

Illustrations: Mercury More pictures...

Computer Images: Mercury More pictures...

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Photo Album: Mercury

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	"Orrery" (movie) by Marijke van Gans. Watch Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars orbit the Sun, while the Moon orbits Earth. From inside DPGraph, click on Edit for more information.		Mercury Redstone 3 Prelaunch Activities. Credit: NASA.
	Technicians working in the McDonnell White Room on the Mercury. Credit: NASA.		This mosaic of Mercury was taken by the Mariner 10 spacecraft during its approachon 29 March 1974. The mosaic consists of 18 images taken at 42 s intervals duringa 13 minute period when the spacecraft was 200,000 km (about 6 hours prior to closestapproach) from the planet. Credit: NASA.
	Mosaic of the Bach area of Mercury. Credit: NASA.		Figure 34. Richard mercury bottle shown with the apparatus in the closed position. This apparatus was specially designed by Dr. Jules Richard for use on board the PRINCESSE ALICE in 1896. It sampled water for studying the condition s for the dissolution of gases at various depths. It was used between 1000 and 2700 meters at 3 stations. Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now.
	Figure 40. Fol bathometer, designed by Hermann Fol who was a collaborator with Prince Albert I of Monaco. This instrument used the same principle as the Erics son sounder. Fol replaced water with mercury in order to determine the depth attained as a function of the quantity of liquid displaced by the pressure. Details concerning tests and effectiveness of this device are unknown. Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now.		Figure 11. Buchanan mercury piezometer (VORINGEN model) - This piezometer was designed by Henrik Mohn who was inspired by Buchanan's earlier CHALLENGER design. Mohn had this instrument fabricated by Louis Casella and used it to determine depths of observation of Negretti and Zambra reversing thermometers used during the Norwegian VORINGEN expedition in 1877-1878. Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now.
	A Mercury launch. The Mercury series were manned orbiting vehicles. Many meteorological and earth resource photographs were taken by Mercury astronauts. Credit: NOAA in Space.		AML Glass Butte, Burns District. Cinnabar Ore (cinnabar: a mineral consisting of mercuric sulfide occurring in brilliant red crystals or in red or brownish masses and being the only important ore of mercury.). Credit: John Craig.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Digital Photo Gallery: Mercury
 

"Midnight Fog" by Ralph Spegel Commentary: "Midnight fog - street with mercury lamps."

Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers.

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Familiar Quotations: Mercury

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Use in Literature: Mercury

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Non-Fiction Usage: Mercury

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Usage Frequency: Mercury

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Name Usage Frequency: Mercury

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Derived & Related Names: Mercury

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Usage in Company Names: Mercury

Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.

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Expressions: Mercury