"The surface of Mercury is shrinking faster than previously thought, photos from a NASA spacecraft orbiting the tiny planet reveal.
"These new results resolved a decades-long paradox between thermal history models and estimates of Mercury's contractions," said study lead author Paul Byrne of the Carnegie Institution for Science in a statement.
The surface of Mercury is made up of just one continental plate covering the entire planet. Its enormous iron core, estimated to be about 2,500 miles (4,040 km) across, leaves only 260 miles (420 km) for a mantle and crust — an extremely thin skin for the solar system's smallest planet.
And as if that weren't enough for little Mercury, the tiny planet is shrinking.
As the liquid iron core solidifies, it cools, and the overall volume of Mercury shrinks.
When NASA's Mariner 10 mission circled the planet in the 1970s, it captured images of surface features created by the shrinkage. The contracting planet pushed the crust up and over itself, forming scarps that can extend miles below the planet's surface. At the same time, the shrinking surface caused the crust to wrinkle up on itself, forming so-called "wrinkle ridges."
Byrne's findings of a contraction of up to 4.4 miles fits far more cleanly with present models." YahooNews
"These new results resolved a decades-long paradox between thermal history models and estimates of Mercury's contractions," said study lead author Paul Byrne of the Carnegie Institution for Science in a statement.
The surface of Mercury is made up of just one continental plate covering the entire planet. Its enormous iron core, estimated to be about 2,500 miles (4,040 km) across, leaves only 260 miles (420 km) for a mantle and crust — an extremely thin skin for the solar system's smallest planet.
And as if that weren't enough for little Mercury, the tiny planet is shrinking.
As the liquid iron core solidifies, it cools, and the overall volume of Mercury shrinks.
When NASA's Mariner 10 mission circled the planet in the 1970s, it captured images of surface features created by the shrinkage. The contracting planet pushed the crust up and over itself, forming scarps that can extend miles below the planet's surface. At the same time, the shrinking surface caused the crust to wrinkle up on itself, forming so-called "wrinkle ridges."
Byrne's findings of a contraction of up to 4.4 miles fits far more cleanly with present models." YahooNews
For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Romans 8:22
