Heat Transfer In Mercury

Heat transfer takes place everywhere in our daily lives and they are not only limited to earth.
It can also take place in the sun, the moon or any other planets. There are three types of heat
transfer processes and they are radiation, convection and conduction. The sun is the main
source of energy in the solar system. Due to the nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei into
helium, it is able to produce a lot of thermal energy and distributing it by radiation. Radiation
is a type of heat transfer process whereby heat energy is being transferred in the form of
electromagnetic waves from the sun to the astronomical objects. Convection then helps to
distribute the heat across the planet from the warmer regions to the cooler regions. Warm air
rises which allows space for the cooler air to flow.
Different planets are in different positions in the solar system where some are near to the sun
while some are far away from the sun. Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system and
is the closest to the sun. Despite being the nearest to the sun, it is always thought that
Mercury will be the hottest planet. Although the surface temperature of Mercury can reach up
till 450oC during daylight, the temperature drops drastically to -170oC in the night. The large
change in temperature is due to the atmosphere of Mercury. Unlike other planets which has a
thicker atmosphere like Earth, Mercury has almost no atmosphere to trap heat (Nola Taylor
Redd, S. 2012). That is why once there is no sunlight, the temperature will plummet. As
Mercury is very small, it has very little gravity which is needed to hold on to the atmosphere
which is why its original atmosphere dissipated when Mercury was formed billions of years
ago. However, recent studies show that there is some form of a flimsy atmosphere that
consists of various elements and compounds such as oxygen, helium, sodium and water
vapour (McGrath, M. A., Johnson, R. E., & Lanzerotti, L. J. 1986). Due to the constant
bombarding of the solar wind, some of the elements that are found in the flimsy atmosphere
actually comes from the solar wind.

Mercury, being the closest to the sun, has its dynamical state being affected by the tidal
interaction with the sun. The tidal interaction of a planet varies with the rotation around the
sun. As Mercury is the nearest to the sun, it takes only 88 days (Colombo, G., & Shapiro, I. I.
1966) to orbit around the sun which indicates that it has a high rotation and this implies that
there is a higher tidal interaction in Mercury (Schubert, G., Ross, M. N., Stevenson, D. J., &
Spohn, T. 1988). Besides the suns radiation waves that give heat to the planet, tidal heating is
also a heat source that helps to heat up the mantle of Mercury. The mantle then transfers heat
from the hot core to the colder surfaces of the planet. This phenomena is called mantle
convection. Mantle convection is a very slow process as it is basically the creeping motion of
the planets solid silicate mantle caused by convection currents that carry heat from the inner
core to the planets surface. This is somewhat similar to the normal type of convection as it
transfers heat from a hotter region to a colder region just that it is happening within the
planets core.
To sum it up, this article has covered the common types of heat transfer and explained the
unique atmosphere of Mercury and its fluctuating surface temperature. The effect of the sun
on Mercury via the solar winds which induce tidal heating within the mantle of Mercury
causing mantle convection has also been covered.

References
Nola Taylor Redd, S. (2012). Mercury's Atmosphere. Space.com. Retrieved 25 February
..........2016, from http://www.space.com/18644-mercury-atmosphere.html
McGrath, M. A., Johnson, R. E., & Lanzerotti, L. J. (1986). Sputtering of sodium on the
..........planet Mercury. Nature, 323(6090), 694-696.
Colombo, G., & Shapiro, I. I. (1966). The rotation of the planet Mercury. The Astrophysical
..........Journal, 145, 296.
Schubert, G., Ross, M. N., Stevenson, D. J., & Spohn, T. (1988). Mercurys thermal history
..........and the generation of its magnetic field. Mercury, 429-460.