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Dead NASA probe reveals Mercury's secrets
Mercury\'s magnetic field is almost four billion years old, data from NASA\'s Messenger probe has revealed. It orbited Mercury for four years before crashing into the planet last week. The discovery will help scientists piece together the history of Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun and one about which we knew very little before the Messenger mission.
Toronto: Mercury's magnetic field is almost four billion years old, data from NASA's Messenger probe has revealed. It orbited Mercury for four years before crashing into the planet last week. The discovery will help scientists piece together the history of Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun and one about which we knew very little before the Messenger mission.
Scientists have known for some time that Mercury has a magnetic field similar to the Earth's but much weaker. Mercury is the only other planet besides the Earth in the inner solar system with such a magnetic field. There is evidence that Mars once had a magnetic field but it disappeared at some point over three billion years ago.
When Messenger flew close to the planet, its magnetometer collected data on the magnetism of rocks in Mercury's surface. Those tiny signals revealed that Mercury's magnetic field is very ancient, between 3.7 and 3.9 billion years old. The planet itself formed around the same time as the Earth, just over 4.5 billion years ago.
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