Spatial variations of the sodium/potassium ratio in Mercury's exosphere uncovered by high-resolution spectroscopy

Alain Doressoundiram (1) , François Leblanc (2) , Cédric Foellmi (3) , Adeline Gicquel (1) , Gabriele Cremonese (4) , Jean-François Donati (5) , Christian Veillet (6)

1 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
2 HELIOS - LATMOS
3 LAOG - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
4 OAPD - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
5 LATT - Laboratoire Astrophysique de Toulouse-Tarbes
6 CFHT - Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corporation

High resolution spectroscopy of Mercury has been obtained with two different instruments in 2006: the EMMI instrument at the 3.6-m NTT telescope of ESO La Silla Chile and the Espadon spectrograph at the 3.6-m CFHT telescope on top of Mauna Kea (Hawaii). The disk of the planet has been scanned for spatial variation of the exospheric species. The large spectral range and high resolution allow simultaneous measurements of the integrated column density of Na and K

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]; Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]

Alain Doressoundiram, François Leblanc, Cédric Foellmi, Adeline Gicquel, Gabriele Cremonese, et al.. Spatial variations of the sodium/potassium ratio in Mercury's exosphere uncovered by high-resolution spectroscopy. Icarus, 2010, 207 (1), pp.1-8. ⟨10.1016/j.icarus.2009.11.020⟩. ⟨hal-00436486⟩