Talk:Mercury (planet)

Edit Request

{{Edit semi-protected}}

Messenger entered orbit on the 17th, not the 18th. See here:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1897.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.17.50.115 (talk) 03:30, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Please change from...

"The second is the MESSENGER spacecraft, which attained orbit around Mercury on March 18, 2011,[12] where it will begin mapping the rest of the planet."

to...

"The second is the MESSENGER spacecraft, which attained orbit around Mercury on March 17, 2011,[12] where it will begin mapping the rest of the planet."

and please update the reference [12] from...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110318/ap_on_sc/us_sci_mercury

to...

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1897.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.17.50.115 (talk) 03:37, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Done by User:Kheider. — Bility (talk) 05:15, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

The reference to the 1.5 m Hale Telescope links to the wrong Hale Telescope. Please redirect to the Mount Wilson Observatory page https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Mount_Wilson_Observatory — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.153.157.61 (talk) 04:31, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Delinked. Materialscientist (talk) 04:47, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

New astronomy: "Daily beast and Newsweek (education)" by author Boris Spadina (Croatia):

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2011/07/21/memphis-school-opening-delayed.html

78.3.105.234 (talk) 16:00, 5 August 2011 (UTC)

Change obvious typo "Internal structure of Mars" to "Internal structure of Mercury"

Fixed, thanks. Materialscientist (talk) 09:43, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

Could this article possibly be rewritten in conversational English? I was just looking for simple information about why we can't usually see Mercury, as well as when and where we can see it. I probably would have stayed for the rest, except that the first section was simply incomprehensible. The writing is factually correct, I'm sure, but I can only understand about half of it because of all the technical jargon. People come to Wikipedia for quick information, not for a college-level education. The articles need to be correct, but they should also be broadly approachable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Carlogesualdo (talk • contribs) 02:06, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Maybe this? Many wikipedia articles have a "Simple English" version, which can be found in the left panel, among other language versions (sorted alphabetically). Materialscientist (talk) 03:07, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Mercury's magnetic field

Hello, this is SpaceChimp1992. I'm one of the new users here at Wikipedia, and I created an article that I invested a lot of time into: Terraforming of Europa (moon). I am asking for your consent if it is O.K. if I create an article about Mercury's magnetic field. I'm also sure that it will be different than just re-stating what's already on Mercury (planet)#Magnetic field and magnetosphere, I will inform the reader about Mercury's magnetic field strength, magnetic field detection and magnetic poles, the discovery of this magnetic field, etc. Would that be okay? Cheers! --SpaceChimp1992 1:13, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

Organic Chemistry

The temperature range on Mercury and the range of elements present should be ideal for organic chemistry to take place. Are there any evidence for organic compounds on Mercury? 86.177.125.232 (talk) 23:26, 30 September 2011 (UTC) Hitler is gay — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.28.1.66 (talk) 19:50, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

One might speculate that organic compounds could exist near the poles or in subterranean locales.[1] But I haven't heard of any such discovery yet. The high temperatures, near vacuum and solar wind probably strip volatiles from any exposed surface nearer the equator. Regards, RJH (talk) 20:10, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

No consensus to move. Vegaswikian (talk) 05:11, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

Mercury (planet) → Mercury – Primary topic. This article has viewed 92973 times back in September and it is the first planet near Venus and the Sun, like Pluto which had been moved. JJ98 (Talk / Contributions) 03:28, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

Would you consider withdrawing this request after comparing these links [2] [3]? Materialscientist (talk) 03:42, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

• Oppose. No evidence of primary topic. As Materialscientist has cited, Mercury (element) was viewed 130596 during that same time period. Zzyzx11 (talk) 04:25, 23 October 2011 (UTC)
• Oppose there is no way that the planet could be considered the primary topic when in the same time frame the nominator mentioned the element has 37623 more views.--70.24.211.105 (talk) 05:03, 23 October 2011 (UTC)
• Comment I think for most people, "Hg" is the primary topic, since its something they look at every morning. 65.94.77.11 (talk) 05:34, 23 October 2011 (UTC)
• Oppose. As already noted, the nom's reasoning is flawed in that the page view stats don't actually favour his/her proposal. It's also slightly amusing that Mercury is the example given at Wikipedia:Disambiguation of a term that clearly has no primary topic and needs a disambiguation page. Jenks24 (talk) 05:59, 23 October 2011 (UTC)
• Oppose—Sorry but I have to agree with the above arguments. Perhaps what could be done instead is to try and disambiguate any links to the topic "Mercury" within the Wikipedia article space. (Actually there's only a few.) Regards, RJH (talk) 15:55, 23 October 2011 (UTC)
• Oppose. In 2010, there were 1.4 million page views for the element, 1.3 million for the planet. Kauffner (talk) 05:52, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

infobox image

Should a false color image be used in the infobox? I dont have a problem with including false color images in the article but am concerned that readers will take away from the article the wrong idea based on that image. This image includes wavelengths not visible to the human eye, namely infrared, which is great for study but not as an identifying image. Are there other full color images (including only visible light), that could be used instead?--RadioFan (talk) 12:54, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

I think you're right, although a natural light image will be rather drab. Regards, RJH (talk) 17:12, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

The purpose of the info-box image is to be identifying, not pretty. If an attractive image can be found that is faithful to what the planet really looks like, that would be fine of course.--RadioFan (talk) 17:28, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

perihelion

I would like to remove the mention of the precession of Mercury's orbit at the beginning of this article. There is not yet scientific agreement that there is a net precession of Mercury's orbit. There are some papers confirming 43 arcsecs and some finding zero arcsecs. So, best to remove this until the issue is resolved. D c weber (talk) 21:09, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

Looking at your talk page you seem to have issues with General relativity. I do not agree with removing the content. -- Kheider (talk) 22:53, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

I concur. The precession of Mercury's orbit predicted by general relativity is pretty widely accepted in the scientific community, and Wikipedia isn't the place to contest well-accepted theories. Regards, RJH (talk) 01:10, 20 November 2011 (UTC)

- I grant that most people think that Mercury has a net precession that GRT can account for, but not all. So, in the interest of NPOV, we should mention that Mercury's net precession after subtracting other causes was used to confirm the Einstein GRT and the Lorenz LET relativity theories. And that the precession is still under debate. [Obviously we are debating.] D c weber (talk) 13:15, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

This is an article about Mercury, it is not about your dislike of relativity. -- Kheider (talk) 13:36, 8 January 2012 (UTC)