Скачать или смотреть Mercury Has Ice... On the Hottest Planet 😳

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun with daytime surface temperatures reaching 800°F (430°C)—hot enough to melt lead. Yet NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft discovered water ice hiding in permanently shadowed craters near Mercury's poles. This is one of the Solar System's most unexpected paradoxes.

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The ice survives because these polar craters never receive direct sunlight. Their floors remain in perpetual darkness, maintaining temperatures around -280°F (-173°C). Radar observations from Earth and MESSENGER's neutron spectrometer confirmed deposits of water ice, possibly mixed with organic compounds, accumulated over billions of years from comet impacts.

Despite being the planet closest to the Sun, Mercury's lack of atmosphere means there's no way to distribute heat from the day side to the night side. This creates the most extreme temperature range of any planet in our Solar System—over 1,100°F difference between day and night.

The ice deposits could be ancient, potentially billions of years old, preserved in these cold traps since the early Solar System.

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