NASA’ s MESSENGER mission has unveiled a startling discovery about Mercurythe smallest and closest planet to the Sun in our solar system. According to the data obtained, it has been discovered that under its crust there could be a layer of diamond with a thickness of 15 km. This surprising discovery adds a new dimension to the mysteries surrounding this planet.
Characteristics and conditions of Mercury
Mercury has fascinated researchers because of its unusual characteristics compared to other planets in the solar system. Among its peculiarities are its extremely dark surface, a remarkably dense core, and a volcanic phase that ended prematurely.
[post_relacionado]Despite being the closest planet to the Sun and only slightly bigger than the Moon Moon of the Earth, Mercury has an extreme thermal range on its surface. Temperatures can reach up to 430 °C during the day and drop to -180 °C at night, due to the lack of a heat-retaining atmosphere.
From the surface of Mercury, the Sun appears more than three times as large and the sunlight sunlight up to seven times more intense compared to the view from Earth. However, despite its proximity to the Sun, Mercury is not the warmest planet in the solar system, a title that belongs to Venus due to its dense atmosphere and greenhouse effect. Nevertheless, Mercury holds the record for being the fastest planet, completing an orbit around the Sun in only 88 Earth days.
Its surface, marked by numerous craters, is reminiscent of the Moon, the result of impacts with meteoroids and comets.
Mercury and its mysterious diamond layer
The first exploration of Mercury was conducted by the Mariner 10 spacecraft, which captured images of approximately 45% of its surface. The MESSENGER missionmission, which flew past Mercury three times between 2008 and 2009 and orbited the planet from 2011 to 2015, provided a comprehensive mapping of its entire surface. In addition to new revelations about the diamond layer, the spacecraft discovered patches of graphite on the planet’s surface.
These findings suggest that, in its early stages, Mercury may have had a carbon-rich magma ocean, which ascended and formed the spots visible today.
The team that conducted this study study argues that Mercury’s mantle, instead of being composed of graphene, as previously thought, could be made of diamond. According to Space.com, Olivier Namur, associate professor at KU Leuven and member of the team reported the following:
Our calculations, based on a new estimate of the pressure at the mantle-core interface, indicate that the carbon-bearing mineral in this region would be diamond, not graphite.
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Source: quo.eldiario.es
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