NASA finds new evidence of ice in Mercury’s polar craters
It has been a long time coming but NASA, the space giant has finally announced new evidence that suggests that there is ice in the polar regions of Mercury. This is a big issue by any standard and it came about through the spacecraft, the Messenger Space Probe. It is also a big surprise given long held assumptions that water can’t be found on the planet closest to the sun in our solar system.
But its polar region is not fully exposed to the rays of the sun because Mercury has a slightly tilted axis. This keeps some of its polar craters from being under the full glare of the scorching light of a Mercury day. It is said that temperature in this region can dip to as low as 370 Fahrenheit. And the quantity of ice that is being estimated is quite massive as scientists have projected anything between a hundred billion to one trillion tons of ice on Mercury. It was graphically described by a scientist on the Messenger project, David Lawrence who was reported to have said that if the ice were spread over the Washington, D.C. area, it would be more than two miles thick.
The Messenger spacecraft reached its destination and started orbiting Mercury in 2011 and scientist have said that the data it has sent back has confirmed the conclusion of some scientists as it captured quite detailed images of the planet’s surface. It also measured what is called the crater’s reflectivity and used a neutron spectrometer which measured the presence of hydrogen.
Another shocking discovery was that they found regions that were slightly temperate enough for human habitation. Professor David A. Paige of UCLA was reported to have said that although people joke about this but it is no longer a crazy idea after all. The first place where excess hydrogen was measured was in Mercury’s north pole. Images from the spacecraft from both the north and south poles finally confirmed that all the craters found in both regions and also called radar-bright features were in shadow regions of the planet’s surface. The Messenger spacecraft is the first to beam back Mercury’s dark regions.
2012-12-05 08:24:06
Source: http://www.maxupdates.tv/nasa-finds-new-evidence-of-ice-in-mercurys-polar-craters/
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