BepiColombo approaches Mercury
A month before the scheduled launch of the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission on Mercury, two new studies received hints to form the innermost planet of the system and its strange chemical composition.
Mercury is the least studied planet of the Earth type, representing a kind of anomaly in comparison with Venus, Earth and Mars. It is an extremely small and dense world with a coarse-grained molten core formed under chemical conditions, and therefore contains much less oxidized material than the neighboring planets.
The new analysis suggests that the strangeness of Mercury can be explained by two factors. First, the planet could have been formed in an extremely early period in the development of the solar system from condensed pair of planetesimals. Secondly, more iron can be located in the mantle of Mercury than on the surface.
There is an assumption that in the early period of the Solar System, planetesimals in the inner circle could be formed from recycled material evaporating due to extreme temperature. In addition, you can exclude a scenario in which Mercury is formed from a cluster of planetesimals that are farther away from the system, because then the world must have more oxidized material.
The internal structure of Mercury is represented by the crust, mantle and core
Early studies have shown that Mercury is extremely rich in iron and contains more sulfur than should be present in the material from which the main part of the solar system is formed. However, the mission MESSENGER (Messenger) was able to improve our understanding of the volumetric composition of the planet. Computer simulation of the interior of Mercury compared with the data of gravity. It turned out that the world is endowed with a dense mantle, capable of containing a significant amount of iron. With the launch of BepiColombo, scientists will get a whole set of tools to research the unique properties of the planet and try to better understand its structure and origin.
A snapshot of Mercury in a false color to improve the chemical, mineralogical and physical differences between the rocks that make up the surface
BepiColombo is the first European mission for Mercury. This is an example of cooperation between ESA and JAXA (Japanese space agency). It consists of the ESA orbiter and the JAXA orbital magnetospheric apparatus. They will go on a 7-year trip to the innermost planet using a combination of ionic engines and gravitational slingshots (Earth, Venus and Mercury).
