The order of planets with respect to the Sun has Mercury in the first line of defense. Its proximity to the massive star causes this rocky body to register temperatures that make it an inhospitable environment for people. However, space probes have flown over its orbit, finding phenomena as strange as the fact that it could be shrinking.
The DW site reviews data from a study on planetary contraction, carried out by David Rothery, professor of Planetary Geosciences at the Open University.
In the report they explain that they analyzed data from the Mariner 10 mission that NASA carried out in 1974 and found evidence of how kilometer-high slopes, better known as scarps, are formed along this planet.
Beneath these formations there are faults called thrusts, responsible for contracting the surface of the world, due to the curious thermal cooling of Mercury.
“As Mercury’s interior is shrinking, its surface has less and less ground to cover. In response, Mercury develops ‘thrust faults’, a break in the Earth’s crust through which parts of the terrain are pressed together. “This is like the wrinkles that form on an apple as it ages, except that an apple shrinks because it is drying while Mercury shrinks due to thermal contraction of its interior,” said David Rothery.
Planet contraction
Planetary contraction is a natural process that occurs as planets cool and contract.
Planets form from a rotating disk of gas and dust. As the disk rotates, gravity compresses it, forming a sphere. The core of the planet is formed from the densest material, which sinks towards the center of the planet.
As the planet cools, its core contracts. This contraction causes the planet’s crust to compress, resulting in the planet shrinking.
Mercury in the Solar System
Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System, with a diameter of about 4,880 kilometers. It is also the closest planet to the Sun, and its surface is marked by impact craters, faults and volcanic plains.
In 2012, a team of scientists from the University of California at Berkeley published a study in the journal Nature in which they stated that Mercury is shrinking. Scientists used data from NASA’s MESSENGER probe to measure the size of impact craters on Mercury’s surface.
The researchers found that older impact craters are larger than younger impact craters. This suggests that Mercury’s surface has shrunk over time.