At Mercury has an unusual feature: it is quite dark compared to the other planets and the solar system solids. Albedo Mercury - a measure of light reflection body - lower than that of Earth, Venus and Mars. Depending on which definition you use albedo, the light reflected by them is even lower than the moon. A simple explanation would be that the outer layers of Mercury just richer darker elements like iron, but the outer crust of the Moon, in fact, contains more iron than Mercury's crust (most of Mercury's iron is believed to be in the liquid core of the planet). Why, then, Mercury is so hard to see?
The answer to this question, as shown by data already broken spacecraft Messenger, is carbon in the form of graphite. In a paper published in Nature Geoscience, scientists believe that once the Mercury was "flotation crust" of a giant magma ocean the size of a planet.
Generally, Mercury strange. Its core is believed to have 42% of its mass (earth core, for comparison, only 17% of the mass of the planet). Its crust is much thinner than ours and covered this enigmatic graphite layer. So far it is the only body in the solar system, having a carbon layer of this kind.
There are plenty of theories that could explain these features, but they all start with Mercury, which is twice as heavy as this. Perhaps this excess material to evaporate under the influence of the Sun or the giant blow smashed the planet, throwing a significant amount of its material in the world. In any case, Mercury must be part of another planet.
Messenger data suggest that carbon on the surface of Mercury came from inside the planet - perhaps precipitation of turbulent ocean of magma. This ocean could be formed in the aftermath of a massive collision - perhaps similar to the one followed by the Moon, and the Earth's surface had melted was created.
Mercury is unique for another reason: a lot of us discovered extrasolar planets were so-called "hot Jupiters", gas giants with orbits very close to its home star. However, we do not see any planets the size of Mercury's orbit which would be close to the stars. Gas giants just do not leave space for the existence of the planets Mercury type.
We have found many planets since they began to look - but none of solar systems discovered to date, not like ours. However, this can be a very simple explanation.
Scientists have long been interested in the question why The Mercury has an unusually dark surface. Mercurys surface is darker than the closest celestial body devoid of atmosphere - our Moon.
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