Mercury

Did Mercury once have the ingredients for life?0
- From Around the Web, Space
- March 27, 2020
Volatiles may have once cracked Mercury’s surface.

By David Aragorn
Mercury’s Extreme Daytime Heat May Help It Make Its Polar Ice 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- March 25, 2020
In 2011, NASA’s MESSENGER orbiter detected signals typical of glacial ice near the poles on Mercury. The ice was dingy and lurked in permanent shadows in numerous polar craters. According to new research led by Georgia Institute of Technology researchers, the extreme heat on Mercury, where daytime temperatures reach 400 degrees Celsius (750 degrees Fahrenheit), helps make some of that ice.

By David Aragorn
TRANSIT OF MERCURY–OUT OF THIS WORLD IMAGES 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- November 14, 2019
Millions of people on Earth witnessed the transit of Mercury yesterday when the tiny black form of the first planet crossed the face of the sun.

By David Aragorn
Mercury Has Solid Inner Core, Planetary Scientists Say 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- April 19, 2019
Planetary researchers have long known that Earth and Mercury have metallic cores. Mercury’s core fills nearly 85% of the volume of the planet — huge compared to the other rocky planets in the Solar System. Like Earth, Mercury’s outer core is composed of liquid metal, but there have only been hints that Mercury’s innermost core is solid. Now, a team of scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, MIT, Sapienza University, Case Western Reserve University and Columbia University has found evidence that Mercury’s inner core is indeed solid and that it is very nearly the same size as Earth’s solid inner core.

By David Aragorn
BepiColombo spacecraft launches on mission to Mercury 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- October 26, 2018
Experts say planet could offer new insights into how solar system formed

By David Aragorn
New estimates of Mercury’s thin, dense crust 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- April 28, 2018
Mercury is small, fast and close to the sun, making the rocky world challenging to visit. Only one probe has ever orbited the planet and collected enough data to tell scientists about the chemistry and landscape of Mercury’s surface. Learning about what is beneath the surface, however, requires careful estimation.

By David Aragorn
Scientists Find New Evidence for Surface Water Ice at Mercury’s North Pole 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- September 22, 2017
A new study led by Brown University planetary researchers adds three new large members to the list of water ice-filled craters near Mercury’s north pole and shows evidence that smaller-scale deposits scattered around the north pole; those deposits may be small, but they could add up to a lot more previously unaccounted-for ice.

By David Aragorn
Mercury’s Water Ice Deposits Have a Mysterious Origin 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- February 16, 2017
New analysis of observations made by NASA’s MESSENGER mission reveal where the solar system’s innermost planet’s water ice is but not where it’s from.

By David Aragorn
NASA’s SDO Captures Mercury Transit Time-lapse 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- May 10, 2016
Glorious view of Mercury passing over the sun as NASA takes a time-lapse of the spectral.

By David Aragorn
Topographical Map of Mercury 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- May 7, 2016
NASA’s MESSENGER mission has unveiled the first global digital elevation model (DEM) of Mercury

By Around the Web Editor