Transient Phenomena of Mercury

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential for observing transient phenomena on Mercury, highlighting historical observations and recent missions that could shed light on these mysterious events, thus contributing to planetary science and space exploration.

Contribution

It identifies overlooked earth-based observations of Mercury's transient phenomena and discusses how modern missions like BepiColombo can advance understanding of these events.

Findings

Historical observations of Mercury's anomalous phenomena exist.

Recent space missions may enable detection of transient events.

ALPO can play a role in studying Mercury's transient phenomena.

Abstract

The similarity of Mercury to the Moon raises the question on mercurian analogues of lunar transient phenomena. However, since the mid-1960s, this topic has remained out of attention. Nevertheless, the discoveries of the 21st century and the BepiColombo mission give hope for the registration of Mercury transient phenomena. In this regard, it is shown that there are forgotten earth-based observations of anomalous phenomena on Mercury, which now fit into modern knowledge about this planet. Therefore, ALPO could contribute to this mysterious aspect of space exploration.