Orbital Observations of Mercury Reveal Flood Lavas, Hollows, and Unprecedented Surface Details

ScienceDaily (Sep. 29, 2011) — After only six months in orbit around Mercury, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is sending back information that has revolutionized the way scientists think about the innermost planet. Analyses of new data from the spacecraft show, among other things, new evidence that flood volcanism has been widespread on Mercury, the first close-up views of Mercury's "hollows," the first direct measurements of the chemical composition of Mercury's surface, and the first global inventory of plasma ions within Mercury's space environment.

An example of a large crater (Tyagaraja, 97 km in diameter) with a floor partially covered by large numbers of coalesced hollows. (Credit: Courtesy of Science/AAAS)

For decades scientists had puzzled over whether Mercury had volcanic deposits on its surface. MESSENGER's three flybys answered that question in the affirmative, but the global distribution of volcanic materials was not well constrained. New data from orbit show a huge expanse of volcanic plains surrounding the north polar region of Mercury. These continuous smooth plains cover more than 6% of the total surface of Mercury.

This information turns out to be very interesting for me because new materials are being found in Mercury, everyday new things are discovered and the way scientists think change all the time because of the new discoveries. This information is completely new so if evidence of flood volcanism has been discovered maybe one day we can fin evidence of living things in Mercury or in other galaxies, and that would be very cool. This information may be of interest for some of us or maybe not because it doesn't necessarily affect us in any way. But for me is important to know about things that happen outside of my life, a lot of things happen around the world that may never affect me but I like knowing what is happening outside my window because someday it may affect me or it may be useful for me.

In my opinion the Areas of Interactions used in this article are: Environments an Social education because this discovery occurred in an environment and maybe more things can occur in that environment, and the other one is Social Education because this information its not only educating scientist that got to change their minds because of this but also the community to know that outside are planet many things happen that may affect us in a good or bad way.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110929150927.htm