The MESSENGER Sends Scientists CHILLING Discovery On Mercury | REAL IMAGES

 

It's fascinating to think that the closest planet to the sun Mercury at first glance might seem like the most all uneventful planet in the solar system but if recent images and discoveries are to be believed we may have been missing out this entire time welcome back to Science Reads and for today's article join us as we embark on a journey to the first densest little planet in the solar system to uncover its secrets and explore some exciting new findings mercury may be the smallest planet in the solar system but it sure does pack a punch being the smallest means it's also the densest with a huge metallic core that is roughly 2,200 to 2,400 miles wide oddly enough the outer layer of the planet is only about 300 to 400 miles thick which makes for an interesting combination along with other volatile elements

 being the first inline and closest to the sun it's no exaggeration when we say this little planet is scorching hot with a surface temperature of 840 degrees fahrenheit or 450 degrees celsius it's no wonder there isn't anything that could possibly inhabit this boiling world but being the enigma that it is mercury doesn't have much of a real atmosphere to actually entrap any of the heat so at night the temperatures actually dramatically plummet to minus 275 degrees fahrenheit or 170 degrees celsius that's a record-breaking temperature swing of more than a thousand degrees making it the greatest in the solar system as far as looks go mercury is heavily cratered and even has the famous impact crater called the Caloris Basin a crater roughly 960 miles or 1550 kilometers wide that's big enough to hold the entire state of Texas if you think you'd find some fascinating moons orbiting around mercury then you're in for a surprise the planet actually has no moons at all it actually zips around the sun faster than any of its neighboring planets it's no wonder the Romans gave the planet its name Mercury at the swift footed Messenger god back in the 70s mercury was still a world of mystery to scientists and to us all

 being so close to the sun and given its small size it became much more of a difficult subject of study than even Pluto taking advantage of the gravitational pull from the planet Venus the mariner Venus mercury mission later renamed the mariner 10 was launched on 3rd November 1973.

 it made three successful flybys of the planet seeing the same side of the planet each time and was able to send back some of the first images ever of the planet more than 2,300 black and white images to be precise scientists were able to study the different types of craters that litter the planet's surface the giant impact base in Caloris steep cliffs and its surprisingly thin atmosphere from all the pictures and observations sent back by Mariner 10.

 for nearly three decades the mariner remained the only spacecraft to have ever visited Mercury and since then there was no new information on the little mysterious planet nasa then decided to develop the mercury surface space environment geochemistry and ranging mission more popularly known as the messenger mission this is by far the most successful mission ever launched to mercury and the reason we even have information about the planet today is thanks to this mission it became the first ever spacecraft to actually orbit Mercury and gifted us with a more complete picture of the planet like never before scientists and researchers have made some astonishing discoveries from the data and images shared from the mission proving just how little we know about Mercury one of the astonishing discoveries made by the messenger mission was the fact that mercury actually has ice this wouldn't be as surprising had it been any other one of the planets in our solar system but one would think that being that close to the sun would eliminate any chances of even having ice the polar regions of the planet are actually much cooler than the rest of the planet in some of its huge craters daylight never even shines there the radio telescope measurements from earth were also able to determine something reflective inside the craters which was confirmed by the measurements taken by the messenger that ice does in fact exist on its surface previous flybys of mercury by nasa's mariner had captured several images of what seemed to be volcanoes back then there was not

 enough data to arrive at that conclusion during messenger's first flyby it immediately was able to confirm that what scientists had seen in the images was in fact volcanoes including one bigger than the state of Delaware according to data the planet once had

 flowing lava and volcanic activity

 and at some point it simply stopped and

 appears to have been quiet ever since

 we know from images sent back to earth from the mariner that mercury is a planet filled with craters due to meteoroids and comets that have struck it over the years the crust of the planet is mostly made up of graphite a very pure form of carbon that is able to convert into diamonds after being struck by asteroids why is this significant well researchers now have reason to believe that the crust of mercury could actually contain up to 16 quadrillion tons of diamonds according to geologist Kevin Cannon who presented his findings at the lunar and planetary science conference the pressure away from asteroids or comets striking the surface of the planet at tens of kilometers per second could actually transform that graphite into diamonds he clarified however that the diamonds may not be the refined sparkly ones we see here but rather a messy mixture with graphite and other carbons if this is to be believed mercury just keeps getting cooler and cooler as if having no moons volcanoes ice or

 a possible diamond crust wasn't enough

 a team of international scientists have

 now proven that mercury just like earth

 has geomagnetic storms what are geomagnetic storms you ask simply put it is a disturbance in the planet's magnetosphere caused by

 the transfer of energy from the solar wind storms of this kind on the earth are what produce the aurora and can disrupt radio communications according to the paper published in the journal science China technological sciences the processes of these geomagnetic storms are quite similar to the ones on earth as they established in a previously released paper that Mercury ii has a ring current the key difference though is that mercury does not have any atmosphere and an extremely weak magnetic field it was an observed coronal mass ejection or an ejected cloud of the sun's plasma that gave the scientists the key that they were looking for it compressed mercury's ring current on its sun-facing side and increased the current's energy after analyzing data from messenger it showed that there was indeed the presence of a ring current intensification which is essential for triggering these types of magnetic storms however it doesn't necessarily mean that mercury has auroral displays like we see on earth though that would be amazing since the solar wind particles on mercury do not encounter any atmosphere instead they may reach the surface unimpeded and would probably only be seen through an x-ray but nonetheless the unexpected discovery comes as a pleasant surprise and only makes us more curious about the cratered planet in comparison to the amount of knowledge we have gained over the years of planets like mars and even our moon for that matter not much is really known about mercury as of now we have the Bepi Colombo Mission Europe and Japan joint first ever mission under the ESA leadership to Mercury which will focus on studying the planet

 and how it was formed to look forward to the mission is also highly promising in

 terms of mineral exploration and could

 tell us whether the planet's crust contains diamonds after all launched in 2018 it is right now on a seven-year journey to mercury and will arrive at mercury somewhere in late 2025.

 it has sent back some stunning images even from Venus as it makes its way towards mercury if there is one thing for certain these new findings are just the beginning and when it comes to the small planet we have barely begun to scratch the surface Mercury has and always will be an enigma until we have better technology and spacecrafts to carry out future missions and probes the little planet will continue zooming around the sun just waiting for when we will be able to unravel more of its secrets do you think we should explore Mercury some more let us know in the comments don't forget to smash that like button and subscribe to the channel so you don't miss more amazing articles from us thanks for

 reading we'll see you in the next article