- 1706 - January 2015 watch for Mercury and Venus, low in the western sky. These two planets could not be more different. Try this review for comparisons.
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--------------------------- - 1706 - January 2015 watch for Mercury and Venus.
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- There are two planets between us and the Sun. Venus, then Mercury. Neither have a moon. We have one moon, Mars has two and Jupiter + Saturn have 129 moons.
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- January, 2015, Mercury can be viewed with binoculars low in the western sky. Venus will shine beside it at -3.9 Magnitude. Mercury will be 3 degrees lower right to Venus and 4 degrees above the horizon. ( One degree is your thumb at arms length. A Full Moon is ½ degree.)
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- On January 21 Mercury will b 5.5 degrees below the crescent Moon.
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- Neither Mercury nor Venus have a “ daily” spin. A single rotation takes “months“. A day on Venus takes 243 days with the rotation being opposite to the rest of the planets. A year takes 225 days. The rotation is so slow you could walk faster around the planet than the speed with which it is turning. To be on Earth’s equator you would have to walk 1,000 miles per hour to keep up.
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- The density of Mercury and Venus are similar to Earth’s: mass / volume = kilograms / meter^3 , diameter is in miles:
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------------------------- Mars -------------------- 3,933 kg/m^3 ----- 4,225 miles
------------------------- Venus ------------------- 5,243 ---------------- 7,518
------------------------- Mercury ---------------- 5,427 ---------------- 3,000
------------------------- Moon ------------------- 3,340 ----------------- 2,159
------------------------- Earth -------------------- 5,514 ----------------- 7,927
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- Venus has tremendous atmosphere. Its barometric pressure is equivalent to being 3,000 feet under the ocean. That would crush any submarine, let alone any spaceship.
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- Mercury has virtually no atmosphere. Its surface is as dark as an asphalt parking lot. In contrast Venus is the brightest “star” in the sky. Venus Reflectivity is 75% compared to Earth’s Reflectivity of 29%.
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- Venus orbit’s the Sun in a near perfect circle at 79,200 miles per hour. Mercury has an elongated orbit that expends out 43,000,000 miles to as close to the Sun as 25,500,000 miles. Earth’s orbit is 93,000,000 miles and circular.
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- Venus is almost upside down compared to the disk of the Solar System. It is tilted at 177 degrees. Mercury on the other hand has almost no tilt at all, nearly perpendicular to within 1/30th of a degree. Mercury spins 3 times with 2 rotations around the Sun. Three days is exactly 2 Mercury years. (Year = 88 days. Day = 58.6 days Resonance 3:2 = 3*58.6 = 88*2 = 176 days.)
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- Because the Mercury orbit is so elongated the size of the Sun grows 150% larger and 200% in radiation intensity during its short year.
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- Venus does not have any day to night temperature change. It averages 860 F. It’s a pressure cooker with a dense atmosphere that keeps everything at 860 F. But, the pressure is so great water would not boil until it was 500 F.
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- Mercury’s temperature ranges over 1,100 F. Cold enough to liquefy oxygen at -325 F to hot enough to melt lead at 860 F. The core of Mercury is 81% of its mass. The crust is 289 miles thick and contains 19% of the planet’s mass.
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- Other Reviews about Mercury request: #1479, #1478, #1369, #1165, #815, # 44.
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- Other Reviews about Venus request: #1480, #945, #587.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
--- Some reviews are at: -------------------- http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
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---- www.twitter.com , --- 707-536-3272 ---- Thursday, December 18, 2014 ---
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