Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Cool list! Here's mine

re: Cool list! Here's mine

"Are there any small locations on Mercury, maybe around the poles, where the temperatures could stay within a safe 0 to 43 C range?"

Other than the Earth's ocean's, generally there isn't much land area on Earth which strictly fits your requirement.

Mercury doesn't have a meaningful air temperature- one doesn't measure it's temperature in a shaded white box.

Though one will have ground areas at the Mercury equator which would fit this range for a period of time- or one always walk/drive any opposite direction as the morning sun and it can always be within this ground temperature.

At the poles on Mercury the Sun will always be low on the horizon. Anything facing the Sun perpendicular will get very hot [and anything in it's shade won't be hot].
But say you take some flat ground on a flat plain at the polar region which the sun was shining on for hours or days, it could around the same temperature as same type of ground near the equator on earth at noon.

Or put 1 foot cubed box on the ground. How long is it's shadow?
Mercury's solar radiation is averages around 9350 watt per sq meter about 9 times more than earth's surface at noon. If the shadow from box on Mercury is 9' long, it's about the is the same temperature as the ground at noon on Earth.
Or if you hold out your fist and the bottom of your fist is at the horizon and the sun is not above the top of your fist, it should be low enough to cast such a shadow.

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