Live data from Hacker News

Giant 'Great Valley' Found on Mercury

thescienceexplorer.com

11–13 of 13 posts

Re: Giant 'Great Valley' Found on Mercury

#11
post #10
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably very similar to the temperatures anywhere else on Mercury's surface - with no atmosphere, temperature doesn't vary much with altitude. So, somewhere around 500-700K during the (3-4-month-long) daytime, and around 100K at night.

"Because the crater is deep, and the Sun never gets very high off the horizon at the pole, there are parts of the crater floor that are permanently in shadow; they literally are never illuminated by the Sun. Those spots can be very cold; well below the freezing point of water" from this article http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/11/29/_mercury...

That's only for polar craters, which this is not. The poles are in any case quite cold by Earth standards.

Re: Giant 'Great Valley' Found on Mercury

#13
post #8
post #5

What's the temperature down there?

Probably very similar to the temperatures anywhere else on Mercury's surface - with no atmosphere, temperature doesn't vary much with altitude. So, somewhere around 500-700K during the (3-4-month-long) daytime, and around 100K at night.

801° fahrenheit
Post reply on HN