2008年11月
Observation of Mercury's sodium exosphere during the transit on November 9, 2006
PLANETARY AND SPACE SCIENCE
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- 巻
- 56
- 号
- 13
- 開始ページ
- 1676
- 終了ページ
- 1680
- 記述言語
- 英語
- 掲載種別
- 研究論文(学術雑誌)
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.pss.2008.07.026
- 出版者・発行元
- PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
A rare, but normal, astronomical event occurred on November 9th 2006 (JST) as Mercury passed in front of the Sun from the perspective of the Earth. The abundance of the sodium vapor above the planet limb was observed by detecting an excess absorption in the solar sodium line D, during this event. The observation was performed with a 10-m spectrograph of Czerny-Turnar system at Domeless Solar Tower Telescope at the Hida Observatory in Japan. The excess absorption was red-shifted by 10 pm relative to the solar line, and was measured at the dawnside (eastside) and duskside (westside) of Mercury. Between the dawn and dusksides, an asymmetry of total sodium abundance was clearly identified. At the dawnside, the total sodium column density was 6.1 x 10(10) Na atoms/cm(2), while it was 4.1 x 10(10) Na atoms/cm(2) at the duskside. The investigation of dawn-dusk asymmetry of the sodium exosphere of Mercury is a clue to understand the release mechanism of sodium from the surface rock. Our result suggests that a thermal desorption is a main source process for sodium vapor in the vicinity of Mercury. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- リンク情報
- ID情報
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- DOI : 10.1016/j.pss.2008.07.026
- ISSN : 0032-0633
- Web of Science ID : WOS:000261551300002