Tomographic Reconstruction of Mercury's Exosphere from MESSENGER Flyby Data

摘要: The exosphere of Mercury is among the best-studied examples a common type atmosphere, surface-bounded exosphere. Mercury's was probed in 2008-2009 with Ultraviolet and Visible Spectrometer (UVVS) measurements obtained during three planetary flybys by MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft [1-3]. detailed distribution two previously known metallic constituents exosphere, Na Ca, indicated presence gas phase yet another species, Mg. Such can answer fundamental scientific questions regarding relative importance possible source loss processes for exospheric species ejected from surface boundary [4]. trajectory MESSENGER last its provided best spatial coverage prior to orbit insertion. Na, Mg third flyby have been analyzed novel tomographic method. This approach maximizes amount information that be extracted line-of-sight because it yields three-dimensional distributions neutrals consistent data.