Environment

Mercury is shrinking

by LotusFlower | July 4, 2008 at 10:39 am

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As Earth warms up Mercury cools down and gets smaller.

The smallest planet in the solar system is shrinking, a space mission to Mercury has revealed

The Messenger space probe, which began its 5 billion mile journey to Mercury four years ago, has provided new evidence that the closest planet to the sun is contracting in on itself.

Nasa scientists revealed images of cliffs and faults crossing the planet's surface, which they say are result of the crust buckling as Mercury's molten core cools down and solidifies.

The planet may have lost around 3 miles from its 3,000 mile diameter through out its history.

They said Messenger had revealed the shrinking caused by this cooling is far greater than had previously been thought.

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yu244720

at 04:59 on July 5th, 2008

The Planet Mercury, photographed in Revelstoke, British Columbia.

yu244720 has contributed a photo to this story.

jkm3922

at 09:21 on July 5th, 2008

These pictures show how small Mercury really is. At 4879km (3032 mi.) diameter it also shows how large the Sun is (diameter 1,392,530 km = 865,463 mi.) . This transit across the Sun's face took place Nov 8 2006. The next two transits occur on May 9, 2016 and November 11, 2019. There will be a total of 13 transits in the next 100 years.

jkm3922 has contributed a photo to this story.