Planet Mercury has shrunk 7km in size over the last four billion years. Many more details are going to come into the open in the days to come.
A latest report has revealed that the planet Mercury is shrinking.
A latest report has revealed that the planet Mercury is shrinking.
But the report doesn’t say if the pace of shrinking has accelerated in recent years or it has gone down.
There are also no relative reports about the similar reduction in size of other planets including our own Earth.
A latest NASA finding says that Mercury has shrunk as much as 7 kilometers over the years. But the period over which it shrank that much was huge and it took as many as four billion years for the planet to reduce this much.
The latest study suggests that reports about the shrinking size of planet Mercury first appeared in early seventies, some forty years ago, but now things are becoming much more clear as technological developments have enabled NASA to study it more deeply that was truly not possible some forty years ago.
Latest NASA reports have reasoned the cause of Mercury shrinking and a report says that this is because of the fact that it has cooled over time, causing its surface to crack and wrinkling over the years.
There are also no relative reports about the similar reduction in size of other planets including our own Earth.
A latest NASA finding says that Mercury has shrunk as much as 7 kilometers over the years. But the period over which it shrank that much was huge and it took as many as four billion years for the planet to reduce this much.
The latest study suggests that reports about the shrinking size of planet Mercury first appeared in early seventies, some forty years ago, but now things are becoming much more clear as technological developments have enabled NASA to study it more deeply that was truly not possible some forty years ago.Latest NASA reports have reasoned the cause of Mercury shrinking and a report says that this is because of the fact that it has cooled over time, causing its surface to crack and wrinkling over the years.
This planet that is said to be the fastest of all planets in our solar system is also the smallest. It is only a little bigger than Earth’s moon. It would take more than 18 Mercurys to be as big as Earth. If you could weigh Mercury and the moon, Mercury would weigh much more. Mercury has a rocky surface, but deep inside is a heavier material, probably iron.
There are many issues involved with Mercury that have made it difficult to study. NASA has been trying hard to take a close look at it. A NASA report that talks about these issues says, “Because it is so close to the sun, Mercury is hard to study from Earth. No people have ever gone to Mercury, but the first robotic spacecraft to visit Mercury was Mariner 10. It flew by Mercury in 1974 and 1975. Mariner 10 was able to take pictures of less than half of Mercury’s surface. No spacecraft visited Mercury for more than 30 years. Then NASA’s MESSENGER flew by Mercury in 2008 and 2009. On March 17, 2011, it began its orbit of Mercury. MESSENGER will map Mercury by taking pictures of the planet’s surface, including some areas that have not been seen before. It will also collect data on the composition of the surface rocks, and measure the heights of mountains and depths of craters and valleys. Some data collected by MESSENGER will help scientists to understand what the inside of Mercury is like. MESSENGER will let people learn more about Mercury than they ever have before”.
Reports about the shrinking size of the Mercury seem to be very interesting. BBC quotes principal investigator of the current report Dr Dave Rothery from the UK’s Open University as saying, “People used to think the Earth was shrinking – which it is a little bit, but we can’t see it because of the way tectonic plates are created and destroyed on the Earth…Before we understood plate tectonics, people thought mountain belts on Earth were because the planet was shrinking and forcing stuff upwards, and areas of thick accumulation of sediment were where the crust was being forced down by contraction. We now know that’s broadly speaking wrong, but this is the process on Mercury because it’s a one plate planet.”
Reports about the shrinking size of the Mercury seem to be very interesting. BBC quotes principal investigator of the current report Dr Dave Rothery from the UK’s Open University as saying, “People used to think the Earth was shrinking – which it is a little bit, but we can’t see it because of the way tectonic plates are created and destroyed on the Earth…Before we understood plate tectonics, people thought mountain belts on Earth were because the planet was shrinking and forcing stuff upwards, and areas of thick accumulation of sediment were where the crust was being forced down by contraction. We now know that’s broadly speaking wrong, but this is the process on Mercury because it’s a one plate planet.”
source: http://nvonews.com/2014/03/17/honey-you-shrunk-mercury-planet-mercury-has-shrunk-7km/
