Talk:Atmosphere of Mercury

Idempotent (talk) 18:48, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Almost no atmosphere

Isn't Mercury's sky always black. Mercury in general is almost no atmosphere, and most of gas such as sodium are fake.--Freewayguy ^{What's up?} 21:16, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Most undifficult planet to observe

Is it accurate to say that "Mercury is the most undifficult planet to observe due to its proximity to the Sun"? Surely Uranus and Neptune are more difficult? I wonder if this should be changed to "Among the terrestrial planets, Mercury is the most undifficult to observe due to its proximity to the Sun"? Idempotent (talk) 18:36, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

Returning to this point: After some investigation I believe that what the writer of the statement meant was that Mercury is often too close to the Sun to be well-placed for observations. So on second thought it seems fine as is. Idempotent (talk) 15:57, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

"Hermian"?

Even if "Hermian" ("Hermean" seems likelier) is correctly an adjective to describe the planet Mercury (and why only that, and not the god Mercury, to say nothing of the god Hermes?), it is so uncolloquial as to make me question its place here. Nor does this word have common equivalents: the pages for the Sun, Mars, and Venus do not use "Helian", "Arean" or "Aphroditean", but "Solar", "Martian", and "Venusian" (note "Venusian" rather than "Venereal"), all well-recognized English words derived from, but not copied from, Latin originals. Where the derived form conflicts with another common word (e.g. "venereal"), the adjective is ruthlessly compelled to comply strictly with modern English usage, as if it had been formed directly from the name. Here's another example, from the Jupiter page:

Jovian is the adjectival form of Jupiter. The older adjectival form jovial, employed by astrologers in the Middle Ages, has come to mean "happy" or "merry," moods ascribed to Jupiter's astrological influence.

the planet-name adjectives are formed from the (Latin) planet names as if they were native Latin words, unless they conflict with English usage, in which case they are compelled to follow that, though with as slight a change as convenient ("Jovian" rather than "Jupiterian"). In no case does Greek enter into it. The form "Hermian" seems to have been introduced here as a homage to Hermes, probably due to the Roman esteem for Greek culture, or the habit Mediterranean theologians had of drawing comparisons between the various gods worshipped in various areas. Perhaps we all ought to have used Greek names for the planets and Greek nomenclature too; however, we did not, and pretending we did only confuses people. I say, change it. Scutigera (talk) 19:00, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Infobox?

A request was made for a new infobox, but can't find one suitable. Any suggestions? FriarTuck1981 (talk) 01:54, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Looking at Atmosphere of X pages:

Has old infobox needing conversion

• Atmosphere of Mercury
• Atmosphere of Venus
• Atmosphere of Mars

No infobox

• Atmosphere of Earth
• Atmosphere of Jupiter
• Atmosphere of Uranus
• Atmosphere of Pluto

No dedicated article

• Atmosphere of Saturn
• Atmosphere of Neptune

The three with infoboxes are not consistent with each other but generally have an image of the planet and show composition data.

Given that the articles with infoboxes are in the minority, one option is to scrap their infoboxes entirely; bringing consistency. Their content could be merged into the main body content.

Another option would be to create an infobox for astronomical atmospheres, replace the existing infoboxes with it, and possibly include it in the articles that do not currently have infoboxes.

-- Liam McM (Talk) 15:29, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

Having an infobox makes more sense, presenting relevant data concisely and clearly. Therefore it makes most sense to create a Template:Infobox atmosphere. Note that I recently created Atmosphere of Pluto with information from Pluto, which I did so that the main page would not be cluttered with details discovered by New Horizons and with my limited time just did not bother creating one. If there is a template for it, I'd help with adding them. --JorisvS (talk) 13:30, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Agree that creating a new template is the way to go. I have no experience designing them; could contact WP:METEO or WP:AST to see if there is a similar template that could be modified to fit this purpose. --Liam McM (Talk|Contribs) 21:30, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

I don't think it makes sense to use a standardized infobox template for atmospheres that are qualitatively very different. Mercury's atmosphere is so thin and so variable compared to those of other planets (and Titan) that it doesn't make sense to try to express its nature and composition the same way. For one thing, a lot of it is vaporized metals which freeze out on the night side - how do you express that as a composition percentage? Robert (talk) 18:17, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

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Surface density

What does it mean? Please, define the quantity in some way not needing much guesswork to understand. Incnis Mrsi (talk) 15:43, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: SPAC 5313 - Planetary Atmospheres

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 18 January 2022 and 9 May 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Zacastil (article contribs).