Will a pool of mercury form a pure reflective lens in 0 gravity?

Question

The pool of mercury is on a rotating concave dish being spun at or near the focal point to simulate gravity. Will it form a pure reflective lens like an earthbound mercury reflective telescope lens?

Answer 1

No. Since there is no gravity to hold it onto the concave dish, the rotating dish will simply fling it off.

Answer 2

First off Mercury's freezing point is roughly -38 degrees C and Mercury's boiling point is roughly 357 degrees C (I say roughly because I've removed the decimal points). Now that we have that cleared up...

If the mercury was encased in between a thin layer of glass and the concave dish, plus kept at the temperature to keep it from freezing in space (space being roughly -273 degrees C), then your theory might be possible. But leaving it in the open the mercury would either freeze solid, not forming properly to the dish, or simply spin off the dish and not be very good for use in a lens.

Answer 3

In a weightless environment, mercury would tend to form a shimmering sphere. It would also tend to be a bit sticky if in contact with certain things such as some cloths and paper.

In a spinning dish, it would fly out all over the place, but the globs that resulted from the splatter and floating around would tend to form reflective spheres.

It would be impractical for mercury to be used as a telescope mirror, although in theory it is possible. But it wouldn't be the best choice. Aluminised glass is better and can obtain much better precision.


Mercury melting at 32 F and boiling at 212 F ?
That sounds like water - not mercury (Hg).
Shame on that answer!
 

Answer 4

Mercury has a melting point of 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and a boiling point of 212. It would not be easy to keep it in a solid state, because the light would eventually heat it up past 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Rotating a liquid turns it into a natural parabola, but in 0 gravity, I don't think that it will work. You also have to take into account the high surface tension, if it didn't float out of the container in 0 gravity, would kind of have a convex surface unless it was spinning at a substantially higher speed. You would be better off on earth, I don't think that a parabola made from spinning mercury at temperatures below freezing in order to turn the metal solid will work when there is no gravity, the mercury would simply float out of the container. So I would have to say no to your question, but plausible on Earth, or with gravity. I hope I helped!

Answer 5

Many good answers to this. In zero gravity, mercury would tend to form a sphere because of its surface tension. Mercury in a rotating tray would be slung off by centrifugal force, as another responder has correctly noted. Only in a gravitational field, such as on earth, would you have the balancing of centrifugal and gravitational force to create a useful mirror; it would take the shape of a parabola, which would be nice. But, being a liquid, mercury would be disturbed by vibration, which makes it not very useful for a mirror.

Answer 6

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