Scientists have discovered salt glaciers near Mercury's north pole, suggesting the planet may be capable of supporting life. The new findings, which emerged from previous observations by 's aging MESSENGER NASA, were published in The Planetary Science Journalin November.
" Our finding complements other recent research showing that Pluto has nitrogen glaciers, suggesting that the phenomenon of glaciation extends from the warmest to the coldest limits within our Solar System ," said lead author Alexis Rodriguez , a planetary scientist at the Arizona-based nonprofit Planetary Science Institute
These glaciers, now located in Raditladi and Eminescu craters , aren't exactly like the icebergs we know. They're salt flows that trapped volatile compounds deep beneath Mercury's surface. In geological terms, volatiles are chemicals that evaporate easily on a planet —like water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. Mercury's strange salt mountains were revealed by asteroid impacts, which exposed this material trapped beneath the surface. That's why scientists discovered them in craters.
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Finding glaciers on Mercury is a surprising discovery, considering the planet's proximity to the sun. Mercury is 2.5 times closer to the sun than Earth is. That means it's quite warm. However, these salt flows could have retained their volatile compounds for "over a billion years," according to one of the authors of the new study.
Although Mercury's salt deposits don't look like typical icebergs or Arctic glaciers, researchers say similar environments exist on Earth, so they can understand to some extent what these places are like and whether they could host life.
"Special salt compounds on Earth create habitable niches even in some of the harshest environments they occur in, such as the arid Desert in Chile," Rodriguez said. "This leads us to consider the possibility of subsurface regions on Mercury that may be more hospitable to life than its harsh surface."
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With volatile compounds essential for life trapped beneath the surface, Mercury may be able to sustain subsurface life protected from the sun's hot rays. Scientists say that, just as planetary systems have "Goldilocks zones," regions around their stars where liquid water,there may be a similar "potentially habitable" region beneath Mercury's surface.
The discovery of these glaciers also helps explain a long-standing mystery about Mercury: the existence of craters with missing pieces. Researchers suggest that the small pits observed in these craters contained volatiles before they evaporated.
However, the question of how the volatile layers got to the planetremains. Observations of Mercury's north pole suggest that the volatiles were deposited on top of a fully formed landscape. Rodriguez suggested that they could have come from "the collapse of a fleeting, hot primordial atmosphere early in Mercury's history."
Alternatively, maybe Mercury had lakes. Perhaps “a dense, very salty vapor” seeped from the volcanic interior of young Mercury and then evaporated, leaving the salt behind, said Jeffrey Kargel, one of the study’s authors.
Much more research is needed to learn exactly what lies beneath the surface of Mercury.
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The discovery of glaciers on Mercury has many potential applications and significance for the scientific community. One of the potential applications is the revelation of the presence of water on the planet. This discovery may contribute to understanding the evolution of the planet and the potential existence of life on it.
Another potential application is the exploration of the surface of Mercury. Glaciers can provide information about the geology and history of the planet. By studying the composition and structure of glaciers, we can discover more about the internal activity of Mercury and the possible existence of tectonic processes.
Finally, this discovery may have applications in human space exploration in general.
Source: www.livescience.com
