Mercury - Results on mass, radius, ionosphere, and atmosphere from Mariner 10 dual-frequency radio signals

Analysis of the radio-tracking data from Mariner 10 yields 6,023,600 plus or minus 600 for the ratio of the mass of the sun to that of Mercury, in very good agreement with values determined earlier from radar data alone. Occultation measurements yielded values for the radius of Mercury of 2440 plus or minus 2 and 2438 plus or minus 2 kilometers at latitudes of 2 N and 68 N, respectively, again in close agreement with the average equatorial radius of 2439 plus or minus 1 kilometers determined from radar data. The mean density of 5.44 grams per cubic centimeter deduced for Mercury from Mariner 10 data thus virtually coincides with the prior determination. No evidence of either an ionosphere or an atmosphere was found.