Planet Mercury Even Weirder Than We Thought New...

Planet Mercury Even Weirder Than We Thought

New data suggests that Mercury has undergone much more dynamic processes than previously believed and that its core is unlike any of the other rocky planets in our solar system.

NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, which has been in orbit around the solar system’s smallest and innermost planet for just over a year, has beamed back plenty of surprises for scientists here on Earth.

Here, Wired takes a look at some of the weirdest new findings of what is turning out to be a strange little world.

Above:

1. Surface Heights

MESSENGER has measured the height of surface features over much of Mercury. This image shows off altimetry data from ancient volcanic plains in the planet’s northern high latitudes.

These smooth plains were created at the earliest stages of the planet’s history and have been subsequently deformed. The large white feature in the lower left is an enormous rise in the plains that was created through active geologic processes.

Image: NASA/JHUAPL/CIW-DTM/GSFC/MIT/Brown University. Rendering by James Dickson and Jim Head

2. Thin Mantle

On Earth, the convection of magma in the mantle causes many geologic processes, such as mountain ranges and tectonic faults. But if Mercury’s mantle is so thin, there isn’t much room for convection to occur, leaving researchers wondering how such features could have formed on the tiny planet.

Image: Gravitational measurements of Mercury reveal at its interior is stranger than previously believed. David Smith, et al, Gravity Field and Internal Structure of Mercury from MESSENGER, Science, 21 March 2012/ 10.1126/science.1218809

(Source: Wired)

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Posted on Wednesday, 21 March
Tagged as: Mercury Science Space Astronomy

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