Mercury and MESSENGER

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Mercury is the least studied and most difficult to reach and observe of the inner planets, making the two missions that have visited the crater-pocked planet history that deserves to be remembered.
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This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
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All events are portrayed in historical context and for educational purposes. No images or content are primarily intended to shock and disgust. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Non censuram.
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Script by THG
#history #thehistoryguy #space

[@LMacNeill]

It's a testament to the engineers that NASA is so often able to extend their missions -- they are *very* good at designing spacecraft which will last much longer than first expected. So many missions have brought back far more data than what we originally expected, because of these mission-extensions made possible by excellent engineering.

[@twoheart7813]

It's also amazing that Mariner 10 was able to send a first class letter across country for only 10 cents

[@alzeebum]

Another weird factoid about Mercury: About half the time, it's the closest planet to the Earth, since the orbits of Mars and Venus take them so far away for much of their orbits. Even when Mercury is on the opposite side of the sun, it's still often closer than any other planet on the same side as Earth.

[@lesterverde]

On average, Mercury is the closest planet to ALL the other planets.

[@RetiredSailor60]

Good morning History Guy and everyone watching. Another mind opening lecture and great start to the week

[@trevinbeattie4888]

That’s so trippy seeing the Earth globe rotate freely while following his hand.

[@BigboiiTone]

Materials science is incredible! 🤓 also neat how light they appear to be. You should get one! Not a shill just a nerd

[@spaddriver1957]

I am constantly amazed at the sheer range of topics that the history guy has been able to put into such consicise and interesting stories. This is historical knowledge that I would have liked to have heard in school. I would have paid a lot more attention in class!.

[@stuartriefe1740]

Warm greetings from Connecticut as always, fellow students!

[@anthonygray333]

When I was a kid I played with the mercury from a broken thermometer. That explains a lot.

[@roberthevern6169]

Oh, Anthony (if that is your real name!), when I read your comment I just exploded with laughter!! As a kid at school I saw another 8 yr old rolling thermometer mercury around in the palm of his hand as he squealed with delight! Lost track of him shortly thereafter.....

[@robinj.9329]

In decades of practicing "Amateur Astronomer" I've never got anything like a clear view of Mercury. But I'm told that, in latitudes further south (I'm at near 45 degrees North) from a position a few thousand feet above Sea level and with a clear view of the horizon, that it IS "possible" to get good digital images of Mercury. That is IF the atmosphere also cooperates! Cheers 🍻

[@garylawson5381]

I can relate!

[@shawnr771]

I was in Balmorhea State Park of Texas. For 3 successive mornings several years ago the sky was crystal clear and Mercury was a sight to see. It paid off to get up early.

[@bbartky]

I’m older than dirt but I’ve only seen Mercury once with the naked eye whereas I’ve seen all the others known to the ancients countless times. 😢

[@frankgulla2335]

Dear THG, thanks for this space-faring update on Mercury and our space missions to it.

[@167curly]

It is amazing to me that surveys of our sister planets can be made remotely in this way, and also, though being so close to the Sun, that Mercury has icy poles. Thanks for today's lesson. THG.

[@alandyer910]

Thank you for the detailed history of Mercury, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first mission to the inner planet. Clear skies!

[@ELCADAROSA]

Ahhh ... the 1970s. When U.S. stamps were but 10 cents apiece. Another great video, THG! The trips to Mercury have certainly been less publicly well-known over the years when compared to those to Jupiter and Saturn.

[@robertweldon7909]

Another great history lesson, AND THEIR FREE? This channel has become one I look forward to, and can't wait for. ;-)

[@goodun2974]

THG said that Wednesday (aka "hump day") never passes quickly for him, reminding me of a Leadbelly classic: "On a Monday, I was arrested/on a Tuesday, I was locked up in jail/on a Wednesday, my trial was attested/on a Thursday, nobody would go my bail...."

[@joefin5900]

Didn't Ry Cooder sing that one as well?

[@goodun2974]

@@joefin5900 , yes, Ry recorded "On a Monday" on his classic record "Into the Purple Valley", but it's originally a Leadbelly song, and unlike, say Led Zeppelin, Ry always strove to give credit where credit is due, and cash too, wherever possible (he used to hand-deliver royalty checks to Sleepy John Estes). Ry also recorded Leadbelly's "Bourgeois Blues" and "One Meatball"; and Woody Guthrie's "Vigilante Man". If not for Ry, I would've known little to nothing about many such early folk and blues musicians. I certainly never would have heard of Blind Alfred Reed and his song "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?", which is still valid today.

[@roberthevern6169]

​@@goodun2974 Maybe it was Peter Grant(RIP) who approved such things? Either way, LZ did own their issues, albeit a bit tardy. I believe that in the grand scheme of written music, the 'sampling' that Zep was guilty of does rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors! Many musicians from history of old have been found guilty of or freely admitted to 'sampling' random passages written and or performed by someone else.

[@goodun2974]

@@roberthevern6169 , Song publishing isn't typically determined by management, unless the band's contract signs over that function to a manager and gives him a percentage of the publishing rights and royalties. Jimmy Page spent a lot of years as a session musician before forming Led Zeppelin and you can bet your bottom dollar he knew all about the importance of retaining publishing rights. Unfortunately, many of the early blues artists were paid in cash for their recording sessions, or perhaps given a car, and any paperwork they signed wasn't checked over for them in advance by a lawyer. The name of the musician would still appear on their records but after that initial up front recording fee oftentimes they wouldn't get any money for record sales nor for covers of the material by others.This was a less common problem for white artists, although it did happen occasionally, John Fogerty's legal dispute with former manager Saul Zaentz being a particular odious example (it was a long period where Fogerty couldn't, and therefore wouldn't, perform his own songs because he'd have to pay royalties to Zaentz). Anyway, this kind of song theft was a much more common occurence for black blues and early rock and roll artists, however, such as Bo Diddly. David Lindley wrote a song about it: "well the record man gave him a ragtop car/said, 'boy you're gonna be a rock and roll star'/he didn't know he was doing anything wrong/when he signed away all of his songs....pay Bo Diddly /pay Bo Diddly.....call the FBI/call the IRS/ call BMI/call Leonard Chess"!

[@donalddodson7365]

@goodun2974 Possibly a topic worthy of its own THE History Guy episode? 😅😂😎

[@champf1]

I have the Earth globe because of you. Love it.

[@otrondal]

Not bad for a history gui. One very important thing worth mentioning, is that The General theory of relativity was confirmed by observing and calculating the position of Mercurys perihelion point in space. The observed perihelion point advanced slightly more than predicted by Newtonian gravity. This could only be explained by that space-time was curved by the sun's enormous gravitational field, as predicted by Einstein in 1915. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_general_relativity Also worth mentioning is that now amateur astronomers are capable to photograph craters on Mercury. How about Newton, Edington, Einstein dispute ? Also worth mentioning.

[@BTScriviner]

I love how the probes NASA sends on missions last for so long after their original life.

[@garylawson5381]

I have recorded observations of all the planets for hundreds of combined hours through my 10" Newtonian. Mercury is the only one that I have for mere minutes due to close proximity with the Sun. Thanks again History Guy!!!

[@johnfun3394]

We have a globe and we love it, I miss my dresser full of maps, times change, now we Garmin or google directions, always loved to watch girls trying to read one. Mandatory map reading class in the 6th grade,really glad!

[@donalddodson7365]

Thank you Team THG! Fascinating how U.S. NASA used to plan and execute missions on a budget, interesting how ancient humans attributed very human characteristics to their "gods," and how Lance and his Team create such amazing content! Well done!

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

Thank you!

[@ThomasEJohnson]

Thanks for another great video!

[@cuteraptor42]

Thanks for this episode! Even if I worked on Bepicolombo, I learned a lot of things about these older missions that I didn't know. I was hoping that we would see at some point the fly-by pictures coming from our instruments but they might have been cut from the video due to a disruptive mercury retrograde

[@tyrport]

I love my Mova globe. I’m watching it spin now.

[@zylechaos906]

Hi, I am a tour guide at Sammy Marks Museum and for most of my tours I am shocked by how little people know about Sammy Marks and the footprint he left in South Africa, please consider making a video about him, I'll be more than happy to share what I know aswell❤

[@honodle7219]

"Mercury is the most mercurial".... good one THG! 👍

[@h.paulsprojects3061]

Wow... awesome photos of Mercury!!

[@glencrandall7051]

A tough place to visit. And tougher to survive when you do get there. I think I will just look at the pictures. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay safe.🙂🙂

[@mattgeorge90]

Thank you for sharing!

[@HM2SGT]

*How big is your research team, because that must have required an enormous amount of effort to gather, condense and distill all that information! More than one man would be able to do in a day or two I should think, since your presentations, Thrice weekly and doesn't leave much time between airings to learn all of this stuff and craft your usual excellent show. Just the practice and rehearsal must take hours.*

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

I wrote this script. Yes, it was a lot of information.

[@constipatedinsincity4424]

Back to the Saddle Again Naturally

[@bbartky]

@TheHistoryGuy I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the fact you always cite your sources in your videos. 👍 I know you know this but it’s so helpful for people who want to know more. Also, just subscribed.

[@DeviantManRules]

Tis ANNOYING how many GREAT MOVA globes are listed as SOLD OUT

[@christhompson2006]

THG is a great salesman.

[@riverjackson6419]

Absolutely love THG

[@edsmith2562]

Well done as always. We could not ever have reached Mercury had it not been for the predictions of General Relitivity in 1915. The Newton mechanics worked very well for all orbits known, except for Mercury. Peer reviewed and proven by Swartzchild only months after the papers of GR were published.

[@jerometaperman7102]

I always thought that mercurial was associated with the element mercury because of the way it moves up and down with changes in temperature or atmospheric pressure.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

You’d think, but the etymology comes from astrology.

[@jerometaperman7102]

@@TheHistoryGuyChannel - That makes sense. The word is probably older than the meteorological instruments.

[@eugeneblue299]

Thank you.

[@RandomTChance]

I have only seen Mercury during the 2017 Eclipse. ✌️🤠

[@BenjySparky]

THG, you rock! Peace

[@RyanHull76]

Those globes are really cool!

[@brussels13207]

The orbits of ALL planets are elliptical, not just Mercury. Love your videos.

[@greggweber9967]

If you need a large aperture for resolution but also low light gathering, then you need something smaller than two of the mirror segments of the Webb Space Telescope on a beam with another one like the vertical line crossing the T and holding the eyepiece/etc in place.

[@user-oh2hs6jh5x]

Good Monday morning history fans and fellow nerds, welcome to class. Please take your seats as the lecture is about to begin.

[@JeffreyGlover65]

Please have a notebook and a sharpened, #2 pencil. 😎

[@user-oh2hs6jh5x]

@@JeffreyGlover65 I see you there in the front row Jeff.

[@janlindtner305]

Incredibly exciting and relevant, more of that. Have a nice Easter to you and yours❤👍🤟

[@steveshoemaker6347]

Amazing and thank THG🎀 👍

[@msgtpauldfreed]

Ha! My wife has a MOVA Globe of the Moon. It lights up at night, really cool.

[@BasicDrumming]

I appreciate you and thank you for making content.

[@bbartky]

One of the many neat thinks about Mercury is how dense it is. Even though it’s only a little bit bigger than our Moon its gravity is as strong as Mars (i.e., 1/3 of Earth). Also, for many years people thought it was tidally locked to the Sun but that was disproved with radar observations in the 1960s. We now know that its day is roughly 59 days long, which works out to three rotations on its axis for every two orbits around the Sun.

[@goodun2974]

If aliens came to Earth and wanted to know in just one song what rock and roll was all about, I would play for them David Lindley and ElRayo-X's crazy-wild version of "Mercury Blues": " If I had money, I'll tell you what I'd do/I'd go downtown and buy a Mercury too/I'm crazy about a Mercury/I'm crazy about a Mercury/gonna buy me a Mercury and cruise it up and down the road....."

[@roberthevern6169]

That rings a bell in my 69 yr old head.... Did the Steve Miller Band ever do a song like that??,

[@goodun2974]

@@roberthevern6169, the song was written by KC Douglas, and , yes, Miller recorded it, as a slow bluesy shuffle. Lindley's electric version with ElRayo-X is fast and thunderous, with booming bass and cavernous drums, andoutrageous slide guitar; he also played a quieter solo version on acoustic lap steel (both styles can be found live on KZbin). Alan Jackson did a tame countrified version; Roy Rogers (slide guitar) and the late Norton Buffalo recorded a great live version (he was a phenomenal blues harmonica player who played and wrote songs with Steve Miller for years).

[@constipatedinsincity4424]

Hey History Guy 🤓 I'm partial to the original DC comics character Jay Garrick The Flash he had the helmet of Mercury with the wings! He's my favorite Speedster 😊🌈🌈🌈🌠The More You Know about Me!

[@iamsuzerain3987]

Nice one HG, enjoyed watching👍

[@jag217]

Thank you. Can give a history of the quirky Spanish Civil Guard hat. Or tricornio hat. So cool looking

[@guyh.4553]

Being a child of the Space Race, any space exploration stories interests me. Even the Soviets stuff. Ha ha. Mercury has always been a mystery to me as well. Thanks for putting this together.

[@ricochetrabbit4618]

Wondery story!!!

[@camille-bettinaatkinson6412]

Hey can yall do Jupiter and Juno Spacecraft too?😊

[@kellybasham3113]

Love your videos

[@J.A.Smith2397]

Ah I see what you did there, I'm gonna try n use mercurial more(once at least lol) now

[@chriskirkman5425]

Fantastic show again.

[@kenlodge3399]

As to the connotation of being, "mercurial" I am convinced it comes from the observation of mercury in its solid state. When we cite some one or thing is, mercurial: Subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind, it is most often applied as a behavior describing someone being slippery as in sneaky or evasive meaning we are not inferring anything other than the behavior of mercury in its solid state.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

The etymology derives from astrology.

[@HM2SGT]

*So that's where they got the idea for the slingshot effect that Enterprise used to return to its own time in the original series.*

[@rickholder7799]

You really got your money's worth with the "mercurial" stock footage!

[@jkilby27able]

👍👍👍👍

[@SidecarBob]

The gravity assisted trajectories (AKA "slingshot" orbits") you mentioned were long predicted in science fiction literature before they actually accomplished it.

[@jameshenner5831]

Wednesday is the day of the week when you should check your mail, as the messenger of the gods may stop by your mailbox.

[@wendywhite4537]

Wow. I didn’t know that Mercury was so difficult to get to. My Daddy would have known all about it. He followed NASA

[@Enolagay1945]

It's not difficult...just 2 days drive by modern cars

[@wendywhite4537]

@@Enolagay1945 depending on where a person lives

[@bruno640]

Now I know why I stumble and weave-around on a Monday: It's due to the History-Guy here, shakin' up the Earth in his hand...!🤢

[@Electriceye1984bySam]

Good stuff👌🏻🏆

[@jeffbangkok]

Good evening

[@TheCosmicGuy0111]

Nice

[@caseytaylor1487]

Those look like pretty cool globes, I guess there’s a reason that they’re sold out.

[@thomasb1889]

I wonder what the impact of constant thrust would have on getting to Mercury?

[@leechjim8023]

Ice on mercury is comparable to polar bears in Phoenix AZ!😮😮😮

[@greggweber9967]

Probably also the reason for the name of the element Mercury.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

The element was named after the planet. In medieval alchemy the metals were each associated with a planet. Previously the element was generally referred to as quicksilver or water-silver.

[@stuartriefe1740]

THG, is that picture behind you on the bookshelf your Mom?

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

Lol no, it is Judy Garland

[@stuartriefe1740]

@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Thanks, I’ve been wondering! 😊

[@kevinwatts8221]

Great bowtie!

[@glennferris2764]

I’ve asked this question to a few different sites Voyager 1&2 are credited for being the first to leave the solar system but what about Pioneer 10 was launched before for Voyager and was sent out of the solar system after a boost by Jupiter. Pioneer 10 has that famous plaque of a man and a woman and the solar system under neath the couple. It seems everyone has forgotten this space craft

[@joel1239871]

NASA has so many huge wins in their exploration and testing of science. The wins far exceed the failures (and the failures teach us something every time, too!).

[@rickrobinson7080]

Have you ever done a history spot on Percy Harrison Fawcett ??? Considered the last of the individualist explorers. If not please share with your audience. Thank you.

[@shawnr771]

Thank you for the lesson. Go NASA.

[@kylelawson91]

brain food and eggs good morning y'all

[@georgeperkins4171]

That "mercurial" Guy, just seems angry.

[@bigsarge2085]

✌

[@sidharthcs2110]

And no atmosphere to distribute the heat energy. That's how you get ice on Mercury.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

Sorry- that is not the case. Mercury is not tidally locked, although its rotational period is tidally coupled to its orbital period, thus rotating only one and a half times during each orbit. Rather, Mercury is able to sustain ice near the surface due to its axis of rotation, which keeps the polar areas in permanent shadow.

[@sidharthcs2110]

@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Thanks for the correction. I'll edit my comment.

[@MckIdyl]

My dad spent much of his professional life in space exploration.

[@RandomTChance]

Are you even able to notice the water/oil line on the Movo globes?

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

No, there isn’t a line.

[@ABrit-bt6ce]

Vijer....

[@AndersJensenTH]

The MOVA globes are almost all sold out!

[@0r1x]

Your videos arent showing up on my subscription list. It's happening on multiple channels. Just letting you know

[@BillBixby8888]

Please, I beg you, I really enjoy all the file footage and still images you dig up. Please refrain from using all those royalty free video clips everyone seems to be using on KZbin these days. Your old format was perfect. Those clips really take the soul out of your videos. 😟

[@chrismusix5669]

Mercury is just the Moon of the Sun.

[@EGSBiographies-om1wb]

136th

[@BigboiiTone]

Sixteen missions and all bearing the same name. Probably saves money on printing and merchandise but boy, do they make for obnoxious "Jeopardy" clues!

[@BigboiiTone]

One thing I am wondering, does the "Mercury" hat flap its wings to make him fly? Or does he wear it as a way of showing off his speedy nature? Oh and my mom and I both agree, the stock footage of the cringey man was far too long. It would be better to look at a dictionary definition or something more edifying.

[@merlinwizard1000]

36th, 25 March 2024

[@bobcruse624]

There is one GOD. FATHER. SON. HOLY SPIRIT.

[@firstperson7602GMAIL]

Always good stuff