Beyond the Solar Corona: Mercury's magnetic fields seen with large solar telescopes
Résumé
Solar telescopes have a potential in non-solar observations thanks to their instrumentation and their ability to observe in daylight, and despite their smaller mirror size compared to night-time telescopes. We review, as an illustration, THEMIS observations of Mercury's exosphere including the polarization of exospheric emission lines, and speculate that through analysis of this polarization made possible by the large photon-collecting capabilities of the upcoming large solar telescope we may expect to map Mercury's magnetosphere.