RefNoTG/1/11/131
LevelItem
TitleLetter from Thomas Gold to Professor R A Lyttelton FRS, Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge, England
Date3 May 1974
DescriptionGold has asked the organizers of the summer conference on satellites to send Lytteltyon an invitation, and he trusts that JPL can pay as they have no money at all.

Hermann was categorical that he would not stand unless requested by the caucus of past presidents; there was no option on Gold's part, and he is merely takeing the steps that remain. Whether these will work he cannot really predict, but he shares Lyttelton's opinion of the crew in question.

Mercury's surface is the same as the moon's because it has had the same external treatment and internal effects are negligible in both bodies. This means to Gold that the inside can be what it likes so long as it did not get too hot. But they know that it must own a substantial quadropole moment for its rotational behaviour, and therefore it cannot be too squashy. If its interior is indeed very different from the Moon, but its surface is the same, this would put quite a strain on the story that it is a mix of accretion, then internally caused vulcanism, and accretion following that again. It would be unlikely that the sequence was just the same on another body anyway, but especially if it were a body made of different stuff inside.

Gold states he must now get back to reading all that stuff that has become homework for all US citizens - including the work of filling in all the missing words. Sadly the Oxford dictionary is no help!
Extent1p
FormatTypescript copy
AccessStatusOpen
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