The new findings finally put that conundrum to rest. It is now believed that water ice was delivered to the Moon through impacts by asteroids and comets, which contain water in their rocky core.īut the surplus of ice on Mercury had to have come from a second source, one that wouldn’t really work on the Moon since it doesn’t have as much heat as Mercury to kick off this intricate chemical process. That left scientists wondering what was going on. Shockingly, the amount of water ice found on Mercury is far more than the water ice found on the Moon. To survive on Mercury, the water ice appeared to be stored in pockets on the planet’s poles that never see the light of day. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Arecibo Observatory Images of Mercury's north pole acquired by MESSENGER reveal its icy deposits. The observations were confirmed as no fluke in 2012, when NASA’s MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) spacecraft picked up signals of glacial ice during its orbit of the planet. But scientists think billions of tons of water ice are stored in the shadows of the scorching hot planet.Įarly radar-imaging of Mercury done from Earth revealed areas with high-radar reflectivity near the planet’s south and north poles - a sign of ice. Icy, hot planetĪside from the Sun, Mercury seems like the least likely place to host water in the Solar System. That accounts for around 10 percent of the total ice found on Mercury. ![]() Over a period of 3 million years, around 11,023,110,000 tons of water molecules may turn to ice, according to the study. “The water molecules can check into the shadows but they can never leave."Įssentially, the water accumulates in the shadows, the study suggests. "It's a little like the song 'Hotel California,'” Thomas Orlando, a professor at Georgia Tech's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and lead author of the study, said in a statement. Shielded from the Sun's fierce rays, these hidden water molecules turn to glacial ice. ![]() But some of the molecules float onto areas of Mercury’s surface that are hidden from the sunlight, including the nooks and shadows of the planet's polar craters.īecause Mercury has no atmosphere, the planet itself generates no heat. Some are broken down by the extreme sunlight or evaporate into the atmosphere. These water molecules free float through the planet. The extreme heat of Mercury’s daytime separates the atoms, and then energizes them enough to collide with one another, producing water molecules. The planet’s surface soil contains minerals with hydroxyl groups, which consist of one hydrogen and one oxygen atom. NASA It’s all in the chemistryįor the study, the researchers used data on the surface chemistry of Mercury to create their model. Mercury's extreme temperatures could be the source of ice water on this hot planet. In the study, the researchers present a model for how water can be found on even the hottest planet - and argue that the extreme heat may be the key. Researchers detail the counterintuitive finding in a study published Monday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. ![]() The variation in temperatures on Mercury act as a "gigantic ice-making chemistry lab," according to the researchers of the new study. This extreme variation in temperature could be the main driving force behind Mercury’s hidden supply of ice. The reason may be to do with the wild temperature swings Mercury experiences over the course of its day: As night falls on the planet, Mercury reveals its more chill side, with temperatures dropping below minus 180 degrees Celsuis. And now, scientists think they have discovered how Mercury manages to be both one of the hottest places in the Solar System and yet still have surface ice. But it isn't so hot that water ice cannot still form on the planet's surface. As the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury’s temperatures soar to a scorching 430 degrees Celsuis during the daytime. On Mercury, the Sun appears more than three times its size and seven times brighter than on Earth.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |