Mercury, the closest planet to the sun is not a dead planet after all. The NASA's MESSENGER or known as the Mercury Surface Space Environment Geochemistry and Ranging mission sent evidences that the geological structure of Mercury is changing, backed up with the surprisingly new craters and depressions located in the surface of the planet.
"These features, given the name 'hollows,' were a major surprise, because while we had been thinking of Mercury as a relic - a planet that wasn't really changing anymore - hollows appear to be younger than the planet's freshest impact craters. This finding suggests that Mercury is a planet whose surface is still evolving," according to MESSENGER Participating Scientist David Blewett, a geologist at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
The surprising developments might prove that there are a lot more things left unknown and to be discovered in the neighboring planets of the Earth. Now scientists involved in the mission are looking into the possible explanations on how the planet is changing even with the high exposure of heat and gamma rays the planet is receiving from the sun. They have also came up to a conclusion that the hollow formations in the surface of the planets is a result of sublimation or a similar process with the same principle as that of the changes that happens on the Earth's surface.
Several high-resolution photographs of the formations and craters have been sent received by NASA for further observation and analysis.
The MESSENGER missions have been observing the planet Mercury since 2011. The craft located near the orbit of the planet intend to measure solar induced X-ray fluorescence on top of the surface of the planet as well as the abundance of rock forming elements like magnesium, sulfur, calcium, titanium, aluminum, silicon and sulfur. An in-depth look in the planet's general composition has been recorded since the successful launch of the mission.
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