Hero Rupes
Hero Rupes is an escarpment on Mercury more than 300 kilometres (190 miles) long[2] located in the southern hemisphere of Mercury.[1] Discovered by the Mariner 10 spacecraft in 1974, it was formed by a thrust fault, thought to have occurred due to the shrinkage of the planet's core as it cooled over time.[3]
Feature type | Rupes |
---|---|
Coordinates | 58.4°S 171.4°W[1] |
Length | 300 km[2] |
Eponym | Hero (sloop)[1] |
The scarp is named after sloop Hero, Nathaniel Palmer's ship used to explore the Antarctic coast, 1820–21.[1]
References
- "Resolution Rupes". USGS. Retrieved July 19, 2010.
- "PIA02943: 300 Kilometer Long Scarp". NASA/JPL. Retrieved July 19, 2010.
- Watters, Thomas R.; Solomon, Sean C.; Robinson, Mark S.; et al. (2009). "The tectonics of Mercury: The view after MESSENGER's first flyby". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 285 (3–4): 283–296. Bibcode:2009E&PSL.285..283W. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2009.01.025.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.