Accession No
6539
Brief Description
12-inch globe of Mercury, by Sky and Telescope, U.S.A., 2014
Origin
U.S.A; Massachusetts; Cambridge
Maker
Sky and Telescope [manufacturer] NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Carnegie Institute of Washington, and the U.S. Geological Survey [collaborative team that developed the globe’s custom base map] Brett Denevi, Nancy Chabot, and Louise Prockter [named Messenger scientists who worked on produced the map the globe is based on]
Class
astronomy; demonstration
Earliest Date
2014
Latest Date
2014
Inscription Date
Material
paper; plastic; metal (stainless steel)
Dimensions
30.5cm wide x 30.5cm deep x 36cm tall
Special Collection
Provenance
Purchased new from 365 Astronomy, 10A Manor Rd., Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 3RT on or before 04/07/2014.
Inscription
[no cartouche - numerous place names and longitude and latitude marks are recorded]
Description Notes
12-inch globe of Mercury, by Sky & Telescope, USA, 2014. Based on images taken by the NASA Messenger probe in 2011-2013.
Plastic globe sphere with two half-hemisphere printed paper gores. Each gore is held in place with a stainless steel pin at the pole, and is split into 12 segments from about 80 oN/oS. Plastic band with black line encircles the equator, covering the meeting point of the two gores. The globe sphere sits loose on a transparent plastic (perspex?) stand.
The gores are printed with a mosaic photograph of the planetary surface, described in the accompanying information sheet as “a global ... composite image with a resolution of roughly 1km per pixel”, constructed from 16,000 wide-angle monochrome images and 2,000 images taken through blue, red, and near-infrared filters. Numerous names for geographic features are included on the globe in white text. A white line showing 0o longitude is also included, plus black lines for every 15o of longitude and latitude.
References
Events
Description
This is the first ever complete globe of Mercury to be produced. It is based on images taken by NASA’s Messenger probe in 2011-2013.
Mercury’s small size and proximity to the sun has made it a particularly hard planet to study. Only in 1974-75 did astronomers get their first close look at the planet when NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft made three flybys, sending back images of 45% of its surface. In 2011 Messenger (short for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging) entered a highly elongated orbit around the planet, and by mid-2013 the Messenger science team had secured enough high-resolution images from the probe to produce the first global map of Mercury’s surface.
The globe’s paper gores are printed with a custom-made base map, with a resolution of roughly 1km per pixel. This photographic composite image was constructed from 16,000 wide-angle monochrome images and 2,000 images taken through blue, red, and near-infrared filters by the Messenger probe. The globe’s custom base map was developed by a collaborative team that included the editors at Sky & Telescope and Messenger scientists at NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the Carnegie Institute of Washington, and the U.S. Geological Survey. Sky & Telescope’s website states that: “Messenger scientists Brett Denevi, Nancy Chabot, and Louise Prockter provided Sky & Telescope with the underlying base map used to create the globe ... Sky & Telescope illustration director Gregg Dinderman, working closely with senior contributing editor Kelly Beatty, painstakingly placed nearly 400 labels to indicate the names of craters, mountains, valleys, and other features.”
23/07/2014
Created by: Joshua Nall on 23/07/2014
FM:47051
Images (Click to view full size):
