Searching for extraterrestrial water presence has never been so rewarding. Messenger, NASA’s probe orbiting Mercury, has discovered ice sheets on the planet’s North Pole. Finding ice on the Sun’s closest neighbor is astonishing. While Earth lies comfortably at 93 million miles away from the Sun, Mercury and the star are separated by just 36 million miles. Because it has almost no atmospheric layer … [Read more...]
Solar system’s smallest planet Mercury getting even smaller, says NASA study
A new study has found that the smallest planet of our solar system is even getting smaller as its radius has witnessed reduction by some 7 kilometers over the past four billion years. The sparkling revelations have been made by the US space agency NASA after analyzing the data beamed back by its Messenger spacecraft. The first spacecraft sent to explore Mercury was Mariner 10. The spacecraft … [Read more...]
Smallest planet Mercury is shrinking, says NASA’s Messenger
A new study has suggested that Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, is shrinking as its radius has witnessed reduction by some 7 kilometers over the past four billion years. The findings are based on data beamed back by NASA's Messenger spacecraft. Scientists Paul K. Byrne and Christian Klimczak of the Carnegie Institution of Washington used the images and topographic data of NASA’s Messenger … [Read more...]