Mercury

Last Updated: February 12, 2024

Lobate Scarps and a Shrinking World
Tectonics

Last Updated: February 12, 2024

Lobate Scarps and a Shrinking World

Thrust faults wrinkle Mercury as its interior cooled and the crust buckled like a loosened skin.

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Mercury's Sodium Tail in the Dawn Sky
Thin air

Last Updated: February 19, 2023

Mercury's Sodium Tail in the Dawn Sky

A collisionless exosphere paints a comet-like sodium stream in telescopes tuned to forbidden transitions.

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Polar Shadow Vaults and Radar Bright Guilt
Volatiles

Last Updated: June 21, 2022

Polar Shadow Vaults and Radar Bright Guilt

Permanently shadowed craters may hold water ice delivered by diplomacy between impacts and cold traps.

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Mercury’s Oversized Core Cold Case
Formation

Last Updated: February 8, 2022

Mercury’s Oversized Core Cold Case

A planet mostly core teases giant impacts, vigorous differentiation, or both—pick your trauma, bring data.

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