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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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Surprise: Mercury Has a Personality

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(Newser) – Mercury's not such a dull planet after all. A new batch of papers in Science spells out evidence of a busy volcanic past and describes an unusual impact crater that would stretch from Boston to DC, reports Wired. The papers, which draw from the October flyby of NASA's Messenger craft, speculate that 40% of the planet's surface was formed by volcanoes. That's a huge shift—prior to Messenger's trip, scientists weren't sure if Mercury had any volcanic activity at all.

“It’s definitely not this picture of an ancient world where everything that happened to it happened billions of years ago and nothing happened since then,” said a scientist at the Smithsonian Institution. “We’re seeing a very dynamic planet that has a lot going on today.”

This image provided by NASA last fall shows Mercury's surface.
This image provided by NASA last fall shows Mercury's surface.   (AP Photo/NASA)
This image provided by NASA in the fall shows Mercury.
This image provided by NASA in the fall shows Mercury.   (AP Photo/NASA)
This image provided by NASA in the fall shows Mercury.
This image provided by NASA in the fall shows Mercury.   (AP Photo/NASA)
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3 comments
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prowlerzee
Apr 30, 09 9:40 PM CDT
And it's going retrograde in May...beware! Reply
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TerrifiedCitizen
May 1, 09 12:49 AM CDT
I'm not surprised... NASA has been trying to tell me Mars is interesting since the 60's; it's still not. To think if we had only spent the money for rockets on world hunger instead... The world that NASA is trying to escape might be a place they'd rather remain. Reply
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Reader1950
May 1, 09 1:05 PM CDT
Mars is interesting, Mercury is interesting. By learning about the solar system, we learn more about the Earth. If the money spent on world hunger wasn't stolen by corrupt regimes, if we allowed the use of pesticides and fertilizers in the third world, if we allowed genetic manipulation of crops, there would only be world hunger in the socialist world. Reply
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