Researchers trace Mercury’s origins to rare meteorite
Around 4.6 billion years ago, the universe was a chaos of collapsing gas and spinning debris. Small particles of gas and dust clumped together into larger and more massive meteoroids that in turn smashed together to form planets. Scientists believe that shortly after their formation, these planets — and particularly Mercury — were fiery spheres of molten material, which cooled over millions of years. Now, geologists at MIT have traced part of Mercury’s cooling history and found that between 4.2 and 3.7 billion years ago, soon after the planet formed, its interior temperatures plummeted by 240 degrees Celsius, or 464 degrees Fahrenheit. They also determined, based on this rapid cooling rate and the composition of lava deposits on Mercury’s surface, that the planet likely has the composition of an enstatite chondrite — a type of meteorite that is extremely rare here on Earth. Timothy Grove, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Geology...