Water Ice and Organics Found at Mercury’s North Pole.

[Polar Maritime]

New observations by the MESSENGER spacecraft provide compelling support for the long-held hypothesis that Mercury harbors abundant water ice and other frozen volatile materials in its permanently shadowed polar craters.

Three independent lines of evidence support this conclusion: the first measurements of excess hydrogen at Mercury's north pole with MESSENGER's Neutron Spectrometer, the first measurements of the reflectance of Mercury's polar deposits at near-infrared wavelengths with the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA), and the first detailed models of the surface and near-surface temperatures of Mercury's north polar regions that utilize the actual topography of Mercury's surface measured by the MLA. These findings are presented in three papers published online today in Science Express.

Given its proximity to the Sun, Mercury would seem to be an unlikely place to find ice. But the tilt of Mercury's rotational axis is almost zero — less than one degree — so there are pockets at the planet's poles that never see sunlight. Scientists suggested decades ago that there might be water ice and other frozen volatiles trapped at Mercury's poles.

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/presscon12_multi.html

[Polar Maritime]

[Methuselah]

Given that Mercury's locked-in orbit ensures that one side is in perpetual (?) darkness, the presence of water and organics shouldn't really be that surprising...Surely it must experience impaction of cometary material??

[Polar Maritime]

Yes, but this new data confirms water and organics do exist there. As the ice/water is seen to be on the North faces of the craters around pole region, which as far as i understand is not always in the dark..

In 1965 they found out that Mercury rotates once every 59 earth-days. They found out by bouncing radar beams off of Mercury. The signals returned from one side of Mercury were different from another side. They measured and analyzed the movements of the different sides of Mercury and found that Mercury rotated once every 59 earth-days. So Mercury did not have one sizzling hot side and one cold dark side. Mercury rotates on its axis at a tilt of about 0.1 degrees.

http://library.think...rcury/index.htm

Edited December 1, 2012 by Polar Maritime

[Methuselah]

Thanks for that, PM...I thought I could remember something odd about Mercury's rotation...