Mercury: Nasa 'Discovers Ice' On Planet

Mercury: Nasa 'Discovers Ice' On Planet

news.sky.com

Scientists believe they have found ice inside craters near Mercury's poles, which they say could reveal more about the building blocks for life on other planets.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The small planet orbits closest to the sun but rotates nearly upright, meaning some areas on its poles never see sunlight.

So the news of what it's like on other planets keeps flowing thick and fast, can't remember so much news in such a short space of time on our solar system and other galaxies.

Nasa researchers suspect the ice and other organic material accumulated in the shadowed areas of craters at the poles after comets and asteroids delivered the material to Mercury's surface.

So, what say you, life on Mercury?

news.sky.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Ice.... on the hottest planet in the solar system... This is absolutely mind boggling if it proves to be true.

I'm speechless.

Awesome.

Does anyone know the average temperature at the poles, or in the craters to be more precise?

First step is water, next is life....

This could be a massive find.

S&F


SS

Originally posted by Hijinx
I'm speechless.

*looks at your avatar*

You sure are, lol

reply to post by rabzdguy


Don't hate, masturbate !!!

Seriously, nothing to add to the thread aside from an attempt to belittle me?

Ice on Mercury dude. WATER on the closest planet to the sun.

Originally posted by Hijinx
Ice.... on the hottest planet in the solar system... This is absolutely mind boggling if it proves to be true.

I'm speechless.

The regions of Mercury that never see the sun are some of the coldest surface temperatures you'll find in the solar system, so it's not really the HOTTEST planet. In fact, Venus is hotter in most cases.

I'm not surprised water survives in freezing areas of any planet.

reply to post by Animorganimate


I doubt they are the coldest surfaces in the solar system. It's possible for heat to radiate through the rocky planet, but it's still remarkable no matter how you wish to spell it.

Coldest place in the solar system.

Originally posted by Hijinx
Ice.... on the hottest planet in the solar system... This is absolutely mind boggling if it proves to be true.

I'm speechless.

It's the closest planet to the sun but not the hottest. The dense atmosphere of Venus and the components therein making for some entirely unpleasant temperatures.

Mercury of course has a tidal lock with the sun. See: Tidal Locking

The side of Mercury facing the Sun can get as hot as 700 Kelvin (426 degrees Celsius). But without an atmosphere to trap the heat, the side facing away from the Sun gets down to only 100 Kelvin (-173 degrees Celsius). Venus, on the other hand, has a very dense carbon dioxide atmosphere – 92 times denser than Earth. The atmosphere acts like a blanket, trapping the heat, and keeping the planet very hot.

Read more: www.universetoday.com...

Good explanation found here.

Originally posted by Hijinx
reply to post by Animorganimate

 

Coldest place in the solar system.

....wow.

reply to post by Hijinx


Yeah, seriously. The moon is actually colder than pluto?! That's mind numbing, pardon the whole freezing pun.

Originally posted by Hijinx
Ice.... on the hottest planet in the solar system... This is absolutely mind boggling if it proves to be true.

I'm speechless.

It's actually a common misconception that Mercury is the hottest planet, even though it's the closest to the sun. Venus is much hotter, it basically rains methane there.

Originally posted by DarkKnight21

Originally posted by Hijinx
Ice.... on the hottest planet in the solar system... This is absolutely mind boggling if it proves to be true.

I'm speechless.

It's actually a common misconception that Mercury is the hottest planet, even though it's the closest to the sun. Venus is much hotter, it basically rains methane there.

Sulphur Dioxide is the most famous gas in Venusian atmosphere, as it's often referred to as the volcano planet. Not sure there is much Methane at all really (As in none):

As can be seen in the planetary data table below, Venus' atmosphere is nearly 100 times as massive as Earth's, and its thick cloud layers block the surface from view. It exerts a pressure of approximately 92 bars at the surface. Its composition is nearly all CO2:

CO2: 96.5%
N2: 3.5%
SO2: 0.015%
Ar: 0.007%
H2O: 0.002%
CO: 0.0017%
He: 0.0012%
Ne: 0.0007%

Source

I hope we don't land a rover there, if we even have the technology to build one to take those extreme temperatures.

We would see nothing but threads about photos of rocks that people think look like Mercurian beings and their everyday household articles.

Its so funny to me that this comes to a shock to most of you. But come on.... We know very little about life in our own back yard, yet alone other planets. We asume that all building blocks of life must start with carbon. What if for every element on the periodic table there was a life form that evolved from it.

... Oh and....

Ice, that doesn't surprise me one bit.

Originally posted by sparky8580
Its so funny to me that this comes to a shock to most of you.

But come on.... We know very little about life in our own back yard, yet alone other planets. We asume that all building blocks of life must start with carbon. What if for every element on the periodic table there was a life form that evolved from it.

... Oh and....

Ice, that doesn't surprise me one bit.

Ice doesn't surprise that many people at ALL, because we DO know alot about the planets in our solar system. Or at least enough to reasonably predict ice there. The real find is the organics. We _thought_ they might be there, but it seems to be practically a best case scenario as far as that goes.

And there was a thread the other day attempting to down play what the news might be.

Told y'all Mercury is a cool planet.............in some places apparently.