(ORDO NEWS) — Scientists from Johns Hopkins University (USA) have found that the dark surface of Mercury may be the remains of an ancient crust of graphite.
Mercury is the closest to the Sun and the lightest planet in the solar system. It is about 20 times smaller than the Earth, it has no satellites, and in terms of physical characteristics, Mercury resembles the Moon, but is much darker than it.
As a rule, this indicates the presence of a fair amount of iron in the composition of the planet’s surface, but in this case this is not the case, because there was more iron on the Moon.
Another hypothesis suggested that the dark color of the surface of Mercury is due to the rich content of carbon. And now it ‘s confirmed !
Using data transmitted to Earth by the automatic interplanetary station MESSENGER in 2016, the researchers concluded that the connection of a large amount of carbon and large craters clearly indicates its “local” origin.
Scientists claim that carbon was hidden in the depths of the ancient crust, and rose to the surface after numerous meteorite impacts. The dark matter is the remains of the carbon crust, which was formed due to the crystallization of graphite.
Due to geological processes, graphite moved closer to the surface and made it much darker.
Before crashing on the surface of Mercury, the MESSENGER probe managed to tell us a lot of interesting things about this planet:
Mercury as it is First shots: The reverse side of Mercury
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