New data from Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania suggest that carbon-rich volcanic activity could be responsible for the mysterious “hollows” observed on the surface of Mercury.
Mercury
Posted inNews
Oozing Gas Could Be Making Stripes in Mercury’s Craters
Scientists are using new computational tools to analyze troves of old spacecraft data to better understand one of Mercury’s unsolved mysteries.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Much Has Mercury Shrunk?
Mercury is still shrinking as it cools in the aftermath of its formation; new research narrows down estimates of just how much it has contracted.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Mercury’s Hollows may be Young and Active
The first machine learning-derived global-scale survey of Mercury’s hollows suggests they are young features that may be active and will continue to evolve.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Iron Snow Ebb and Flow May Cause Magnetic Fields to Come and Go
Lab experiments find that iron crystals in planetary cores may form in bursts, causing periodic dynamos.
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Dramatic Flyby Confirms That Mercury’s Radioactive Aurora Touches the Ground
Data collected by the BepiColombo spacecraft traces the causes of the strange aurora, which course through the planet’s weak magnetosphere.
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Spacecraft to Swing Past Mercury for Third Time
With each flyby, the BepiColombo mission gets another boost of energy for its eventual orbital insertion around Mercury.
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Mercury Isn’t Alone in Orbit, and Scientists Don’t Know Why
A cloud of dust traces the innermost planet’s orbital path. By all accounts, it shouldn’t be there.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
MESSENGER Reveals a More Dynamic Mercury Surface
Image pairs indicate that 99% of the planet’s surface could be altered in the next 25 million years.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Solar Wind a Major Driver of Atmospheric Sodium at Mercury
MESSENGER observations show a 50% rise in atmospheric sodium-group ions during periods of high solar wind activity.