Mercury, a planet that spins on an axis, is thought to have a similar interior structure to Earth. It has a crust, mantle, and core, but with many differences between the two. Scientists often use tiny variations in the way an object spins to reveal clues about its internal structure. Mercury’s interior is remarkably similar to Earth’s, with a crust, mantle, and core. The internal structure of Mercury is dominated by a large solid iron core, and a liquid outer core of iron, sulphur, and silicates.
The basic structure and mechanics of Mercury’s crust and lithosphere are determined primarily from gravity and topography data acquired by the MESSENGER. Mercury is thought to consist of similar chemical reservoirs (core, mantle, crust) as other terrestrial planets, but there are many differences between our two. In 2007, radar observations made from Earth revealed that the density of Mercury and the magnetic field suggest geological differentiation and a large iron core. For the best match, Mercury must have a large, solid inner core.
Depth-dependent interior structure models of Mercury have been calculated for several plausible chemical compositions of the core and mantle. The internal structure of Mercury is dominated by a large solid iron core, and a liquid outer core of iron, sulphur, and silicates. Mercury’s inner core size is about 500-660 km, which corresponds to a stratified layer thickness of 880-500 km. One intriguing proposal for the structure of Mercury’s interior is the idea that a solid FeS layer could stably form at the core-mantle boundary.
In conclusion, Mercury’s interior structure is largely similar to Earth’s, with a central iron part and an external part with an eutectic composition. However, there are still many differences between Mercury and Earth, and further research is needed to better understand its internal structure.
📹 Lesson 9 – Lecture 4 – Mercury – OpenStax – OpenStax
In this lecture we will discuss the exploration of Mercury including its surface features and structure. These lecture videos are …
What type of structure is Mercury?
Mercury-202, the most common isotope of mercury, has a nucleus consisting of 80 protons and 122 neutrons, and 80 electrons occupying available electron shells. As a transition metal in group 12, period 6, and the d-block of the periodic table, mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature and freezes at minus 39 degrees Celsius. It is toxic and used in thermometers, barometers, and manometers.
What is mercury’s atomic structure?
The atomic structure of mercury is characterised by the presence of 80 electrons and a shell structure comprising two outer electrons. Eighteen The total number of electrons in the outermost shell of mercury atoms is 32. The number of electrons in the outermost shell is 18. 2. The ground state electron configuration is represented by the symbol (Xe). The term symbol is 1 S 0. The atomic spectrum of mercury is represented by 4f 14, 5d 10, 6s 2, which is a representation of the atomic structure.
What is the inside structure of mercury?
Mercury is the second densest planet after Earth, with a large metallic core and a thin outer shell. Its surface resembles Earth’s Moon, with numerous impact craters from meteoroids and comet collisions. These features are named after famous artists, musicians, or authors, such as Dr. Seuss and Alvin Ailey. Large impact basins, such as Caloris and Rachmaninoff, were created by asteroid impacts on the planet’s surface. Mercury’s interior has cooled and contracted over billions of years, resulting in smooth terrain and cliffs that rise hundreds of miles long and up to a mile high.
What is mercury inside of?
Mercury is present in various sources in our environment, including fish species, fluorescent lamps, low-energy light bulbs, mercury-containing thermometers, batteries, and amalgam dental fillings. To reduce the risk of mercury poisoning, it is crucial to prevent or minimize exposure to mercury. Pregnant women, infants and children, and those with kidney disease should avoid excess mercury exposure.
What is the surface structure of mercury?
Mercury has three major surface features: smooth plains resembling Lunar maria, intercrater plains with small craters occupying about 70% of the surface, and rugged highlands resembling the corresponding regions on the Moon. While Mercury may be compared to Earth on the inside and the Moon on the outside, the analogies cannot be too broad, as the detailed early history of the surface may be different for Mercury than for the Moon. A mosaic of photos taken from Mariner 10 in 1974 summarizes the surface’s character.
How Mercury’s interior is structured differently from Earth’s interior?
Mercury is a planet with a large iron core and a thin mantle, occupying about 50 of its interior by volume and 70 by mass. It may be compared to Earth on the inside and the Moon on the outside, but the analogies cannot be too far. Mercury’s surface has a distinct early history, with smooth plains resembling Lunar maria, intercrater plains containing small craters, and rugged highlands resembling the Moon’s regions. A mosaic of photos taken from Mariner 10 in 1974 summarizes the surface’s character.
What is the internal structure of mercury?
Mercury is a planet with a solid silicate crust and mantle, a solid outer core layer, a deeper liquid core layer, and a solid inner core. Its iron-rich core is likely composed of nickel, silicon, sulfur, carbon, and trace amounts of other elements. The planet’s density is the second highest in the Solar System at 5. 427 g/cm3, slightly less than Earth’s density of 5. 515 g/cm3. Mercury’s high density is due to its smaller size and less compressed inner regions, which means its core must be large and rich in iron.
The radius of Mercury’s core is estimated to be 2, 020 ± 30 km (1, 255 ± 19 mi), occupying about 57 of its volume. Research suggests that Mercury has a molten core. The mantle-crust layer is 420 km thick, and the crust is estimated to be 35 km (22 mi) thick. However, this model may be an overestimate and could be 26 ± 11 km (16. 2 ± 6. 8 mi) thick based on an Airy isostacy model.
Mercury’s core has a higher iron content than any other planet in the Solar System, and several theories have been proposed to explain this. The most widely accepted theory is that Mercury originally had a metal-silicate ratio similar to common chondrite meteorites, thought to be typical of the Solar System’s rocky matter. Early in the Solar System’s history, Mercury may have been struck by a planetesimal, which would have stripped away much of the original crust and mantle, leaving the core as a relatively major component. A similar process, known as the giant impact hypothesis, has been proposed to explain the formation of Earth’s Moon.
What is Mercury inside of?
Mercury is present in various sources in our environment, including fish species, fluorescent lamps, low-energy light bulbs, mercury-containing thermometers, batteries, and amalgam dental fillings. To reduce the risk of mercury poisoning, it is crucial to prevent or minimize exposure to mercury. Pregnant women, infants and children, and those with kidney disease should avoid excess mercury exposure.
What structure does mercury have?
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It has a rhombohedral crystal structure and a lattice constant of 301. 06 pm. It has a thermal expansion of 60. 4 µm/(m⋅K) at 25°C and a thermal conductivity of 8. 30 W/(m⋅K). Mercury is also known as quicksilver and was formerly named hydrargyrum. It is the only metallic element known to be liquid at standard temperature and pressure, unlike other elements like caesium, gallium, and rubidium, which melt just above room temperature. Mercury’s chemical symbol is derived from the Greek words hydor and argyros.
What is mercury interior?
Mercury is a rocky planet with a substantial iron core, which occupies approximately three-quarters of its diameter. This core, which is approximately the size of the Moon, constitutes approximately 70% of Mercury’s total mass, making it the planet in the Solar System with the highest iron content. In addition, an outer shell of approximately 350 miles in thickness is situated above the aforementioned core.
📹 Mercury: Crash Course Astronomy #13
… 1:21 Mercury’s Rotation – 2:3 Orbit Ratio 2:45 A Weird Day on Mercury 4:34 Mercury’s Craters 5:42 Mercury’s Internal Structure …
It took me a while to understand from 5:08 to 5:30. I’ll break it up for the one’s who are facing the same problem as I did. 1) At Aphelion, Mercury’s angular rotational speed is faster than it’s angular orbital speed, so the Sun moves rapidly to the west side in the sky. 2) Four days before Perihelion, the angular orbital velocity of Mercury is equal to the angular rotational velocity, so the Sun appears to stop in the sky. 3) While now at Perihelion, the angular orbital velocity of Mercury is more than the angular rotational velocity, so the Sun appears to move eastwards. 4) Now as the Mercury is pulled away from the Sun i.e. it leaves it Perihelion position, again it moves westwards as the angular rotational velocity dominates over the angular orbital velocity.
This article actually corrected a misconception that I had about Mercury. I remember reading that Mercury was tidally locked in the same way that the Moon was so that its year was the same as its day. I always believed that Mercury had a permanent light side and dark side, and that the light side was always really hot and the dark side was extremely cold. I think I got this impression from a children’s book I had while growing up which might have been using out of date information.
Little bonus fact, even though it is the closest planet to the sun, Venus is hotter, this is because the atmosphere on Venus keeps the heat in. Because Mercury has almost no atmosphere to retain heat, Mercury’s surface experiences the greatest temperature variation of the planets in the Solar System, ranging from 100 K (−173 °C; −280 °F) at night to 700 K (427 °C; 800 °F) during the day at some equatorial regions.
There’s also the thing about how Mercury helped to prove General Relativity. IIRC the precession of Mercury’s perihelion was slightly different to the value predicted by Newtonian orbital dynamics, and that turned out to be because it’s deep enough in the Sun’s gravity well for relativistic effects to be measurable. But I don’t really know the details — so I’d love to see Phil (or possibly SciShow Space) cover this at some point!
Hey I think you guys have a small error around the 1:10 mark. You say that, because Mercury exhibits a full cycle of phases, it could only orbit the sun and not the earth. But the moon orbits the earth and we see its full cycle of phases! If an object shows a full cycle of phases, it must either orbit the earth or orbit the sun CLOSER THAN the earth. If we never see the full cycle of phases, it must orbit further from the sun than the earth. For example, we can never see Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, etc. as crescents because they are never between the earth and sun. 🙂 Also: Your animation at 3:56 was confusing. The way the audio synced up with the three points in the orbit made it seem like there are three perihelions per orbit
I was lucky enough to see all five naked eye planets (and the Moon) at the same time on March 22 2004, despite the light pollution in Philadelphia. All the planets were bright objects and Mercury was unusually high and bright. They all stood out from the few stars normally visible in the city. Does anyone know when something like that will happen again?
this does make me curious to know if it would be possible to actually make a bearable temperature zone on mercury, which would make it easier to have a space station there. Since so much of the temperature depends on the radiation it gets, I assume it would be just a matter of digging the right size hole at one of the poles, making sure that the temperature stays as close to “comfortable” as possible and of course surrounding it with right kind of rocks to act as heat sinks.
Mercury is also the mostly closest planet to all planets, its true, Mercury spins the fastest and since its like that, its usually the closest to any planet, for example, Earth is on its regular day, there is a time Mars is closest, and a time Venus is closest, but since mercury is faster, at some point mars and Venus would be on the other end of their ellipse and mercury would be closest now to earth for most of the Time while mars and Venus take a lot of time to come back for earth, this literally works the same way for all planets, but don’t take my word from it, watch CGP Grey’s article on “What planet is the closest?” I’m serious my mind was blown when I heard of it.
Thank you very much for making this article, Phil Plait, Though Café and the rest of CrashCourse Astronomy! It was fascinating to learn about Mercury, surely one of the weirdest planets in our solar system. I have a question for you: you said that Mercury stated out as a very big planet and than got small do to a collision with something. A few episodes back, you talked about the moon and how it was formed by a collision between Earth and the planet Theia. Is it possible that Mercury was Theia all along? Is the Moon a child of Earth and Mercury? What do the space geologists say?
This article told me a lot about Mercury that I didn’t know, but it didn’t answer the question I had – about the anomaly of Mercury’s orbit that had to be explained through Relativity. I have looked in other places, where the anomaly seems to be its precession – but I don’t think relativity is needed to explain that. I’m guessing that when precession is taken into account, the orbit is still not exactly what it is expected to be. The answer must be out there somewhere – but the Internet is a big place!
CrashCourse @1:06″it undergoes a complete cycle of phases just like the Moon does – the only way that can happen is if Mercury orbits the Sun and not the Earth – another check mark in the column for heliocentrism” *How did that prove heliocentrism?… If its orbit was “just like the Moon” – because the Moon orbits the Earth not the Sun. I’m not arguing against heliocentrism – I just find Phil’s phrasing and logic confusing in his explanation.
On Monday, 2019 November 11, Mercury will transit the Sun for the first time since 2016. The transit or passage of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare occurrence. As seen from Earth, only transits of Mercury and Venus are possible. There are approximately 13 transits of Mercury each century. In comparison, transits of Venus occur in pairs with more than a century separating each pair.
Can someone explain to me why at 1:00 he says mercury goes through a complete cycle of phases over time, just like the moon, and that the only way this can happen is Mercury is orbiting the sun. But if the Moon goes through the same phases and is orbiting the Earth and not the sun, then is his logic wrong?
Mercury : brummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm sun : im so dizzy Earth : mercury stop it ! Mercury : but remember that i dont have moons Earth : i know but stop it you are making sun supernova Mercury : ok sniffing i will not have a new 🌙 Sun : bye Sun : boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 1000 years later Sun : oom
So I have a hypothesis, what if Mercury was Venus’ moon which collided with its parent planet in the early days and both were forced into a slow and retrograde rotation as was Venus and then Mercury slowly drifted into orbit around the Sun where it is found today?! I mean every Planet in our solar system has moons including our beloved Pluto. Think about it. 😎👍
I find myself wondering if humans could ever put some kind of station on Mercury at some point in the future, with more advanced technology, of course. The surface temperature on the hot side can reach 800°, true, but if there are parts of the planet where the Sun never shines that are 100+° below 0°, and it’s INSIDE a large crater impact, wouldn’t that potentially make a decent spot to put a small station? It’d have to have adequate building materials to withstand that level of cold, plus their own supply of oxygen and a pretty solid impact dome, or some kind of energy shielding to protect from small meteor impacts… Just an interesting thought about what our science could possibly do in the future.
This was amazing, thanks for doing this Phil and everyone! The deep craters are so bizarre, how come the rotation of the planet never gets into an angle that shines light inside of them? Even though, if there is water inside, there may be (or not) life where the water starts to accumulate as liquid somewhere. This would mean some sort of heat based cool alien fish.
Apoapsis and Periapsis is what I know and will use and Google accepts me with their definition as well. Your words are not Kerbin, and I will not accept them! Sorry that just bugs me how there’s now two words of the exact same scientific thing. I mean, Melancholy and Sadness are alright because that’s emotions and they’re not exactly the same but this is SCIENCE Goddamnit!
He, and many astronomy sites use “Mercury days” in two ways and it’s very confusing. At 3:25 it says Mercury’s Day: 58.65 Earth Days, and then at 4:13 it says in the diagram that 0.50 Mercury Days =88 Earth Days. These two cannot go together. It is either that one rotation on its axis is equal to one day, or that one “Sun cycle” is equal to one day.
The article that because Mercury was the closest planet to the sun that it had to be fast to overcome gravity. I did some checking and the orbital velocity of the planets does decrease with distance. On the one hand I understand that gravity is tied to the square of distance. This is what I fail to understand: Imagine that Mercury is somehow accelerated in the direction of its orbit. Would it not follow that since it was “falling” around the sun faster it would migrate to a higher orbit? That by speeding up it would be forced to be further away? And that therefore the speeds of the planets should increase with distance because the faster you orbit (“fall”) around the sun the higher your orbit is? What am I missing?
Wait, I need some explanation. At 1:00 the article comes with this reasoning. Murcury goes through the same fases as the moon does Therefore murcury has to orbit the sun and not the earth Which is logical because the Moon orbits earth. How can murcury (having fases like the Moon) only orbit the sun (because of those fases), while the same Moon with the same fases orbits the earth.
“but one thing we’ve learned about nature over and over again, it has allot more imagination then we do” .. yeah uhm, we are nature… were also animals :O… big surprise, i know… lel i love this website though :’D i can honestly say that I’ve learned more through scishow and scishow space then i have in my entire time in high school…
Best to fact check at least the first sentence. Uranus with an apparent magnitude of 5.32 is most definitely a naked eye object. You need to know where to look, but most people could see it on a clear night in a dark location. I think it’s best that I unsubscribe now to avoid greater annoyance in the future. Cheers.
Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov wrote a short story where the plot hinged on Mercury being 1:1 tidally locked a few years before it’s true length was discovered. When asked about it he wryly responded that the scientists should have gotten it right to begin with, and he didn’t see why he should have to change his work because of their mistakes.
Why doesn’t he mention the fact that Mercury appears to not close its orbit per revolution by some eighteen miles per orbit. That is it arrives at its calculated point in space on its orbit eighteen miles behind its scheduled time. The velocity of Mercury does not speed up technically because an object in motion keeps that same motion at all times unless it is altered or changed by some other force. What is occurring is the closer you get toward the Sun, the slower time elapses as a momentum.. When you calculate velocity it must be in the time sequence of its position relative to the Sun. This is also true for Earth and every other object in orbit around the Sun. At our perihelion point to the Sun, time is a tad slower than it is at our aphelion point. Our scientist choose to view this as an increase in speed rather than a slowing of time. .
Fun Fact courtesy of CGP Grey, Mercury is the closest planet to every other planet in the solar system, if you look at a statistical average. Because it has a small, rapid orbit, it will be on the same side of the sun as every other planet more often than the others, so over time it averages out to be the closest to all of them.
There are some huge holes in these theories. Mercury has a lot of volatile elements that would have burned up if the asteroid hit like they claim. That’s only one wrong thing I mentioned and yet there are many more reasons that their theory is bad. Don’t call them facts when they’re not facts people! Please challenge yourself to do some research and find what’s fact and what is fiction or in this case, theories. Peace out!
If there are huge deposits of really cold stable water ice in those craters, then there must exist regions in those craters between the ice and the very hot surface, that are comfortable to humans. And with all that water nearby, and all the power you’d need from solar and geothermal (very easy to run pipes to the surface and down through the ice), sounds like a place to colonize.