It's fascinating to think that the closest planet to the sun Mercury at first glance
might seem like the most all uneventful planet in the solar system but if recent images and
discoveries are to be believed we may have been missing out this entire time welcome back to
Factnomenal and for today's video join us as we embark on a journey to the first densest
little planet in the solar system to uncover its secrets and explore some exciting new findings
mercury may be the smallest planet in the solar system but it sure does pack a punch
being the smallest means it's also the densest with a huge metallic core that is roughly 2,200
to 2,400 miles wide oddly enough the outer layer of the planet is only about 300 to 400 miles thick
which makes for an interesting combination along with other volatile elements
being the first inline and closest to the sun it's no exaggeration when we say this little planet
is scorching hot with a surface temperature of 840 degrees fahrenheit or 450 degrees celsius
it's no wonder there isn't anything that could possibly inhabit this boiling world
but being the enigma that it is mercury doesn't have much of a real atmosphere to actually entrap
any of the heat so at night the temperatures actually dramatically plummet to minus 275
degrees fahrenheit or 170 degrees celsius that's a record-breaking temperature swing of more than
a thousand degrees making it the greatest in the solar system as far as looks go mercury is heavily
cratered and even has the famous impact crater called the Caloris Basin a crater roughly 960
miles or 1550 kilometers wide that's big enough to hold the entire state of Texas if you think
you'd find some fascinating moons orbiting around mercury then you're in for a surprise the planet
actually has no moons at all it actually zips around the sun faster than any of its neighboring
planets it's no wonder the Romans gave the planet its name Mercury at the swift footed Messenger god
back in the 70s mercury was still a world of mystery to scientists and to us all
being so close to the sun and given its small size it became much more of a difficult subject
of study than even Pluto taking advantage of the gravitational pull from the planet Venus
the mariner Venus mercury mission later renamed the mariner 10 was launched on 3rd November 1973.
it made three successful flybys of the planet seeing the same side of the planet each time
and was able to send back some of the first images ever of the planet more than 2,300 black
and white images to be precise scientists were able to study the different types of
craters that litter the planet's surface the giant impact base in Caloris steep cliffs
and its surprisingly thin atmosphere from all the pictures and observations sent back by Mariner 10.
for nearly three decades the mariner remained the only spacecraft to have ever visited Mercury
and since then there was no new information on the little mysterious planet nasa then decided
to develop the mercury surface space environment geochemistry and ranging mission more popularly
known as the messenger mission this is by far the most successful mission ever launched to mercury
and the reason we even have information about the planet today is thanks to this mission it
became the first ever spacecraft to actually orbit Mercury and gifted us with a more complete picture
of the planet like never before scientists and researchers have made some astonishing discoveries
from the data and images shared from the mission proving just how little we know about Mercury
one of the astonishing discoveries made by the messenger mission was the fact that mercury
actually has ice this wouldn't be as surprising had it been any other one of the planets in our
solar system but one would think that being that close to the sun would eliminate any chances of
even having ice the polar regions of the planet are actually much cooler than the rest of the
planet in some of its huge craters daylight never even shines there the radio telescope measurements
from earth were also able to determine something reflective inside the craters which was confirmed
by the measurements taken by the messenger that ice does in fact exist on its surface
previous flybys of mercury by nasa's mariner had captured several images of what seemed
to be volcanoes back then there was not enough data to arrive at that conclusion
during messenger's first flyby it immediately was able to confirm that what scientists
had seen in the images was in fact volcanoes including one bigger than the state of Delaware
according to data the planet once had flowing lava and volcanic activity
and at some point it simply stopped and appears to have been quiet ever since
we know from images sent back to earth from the mariner that mercury is a planet filled with
craters due to meteoroids and comets that have struck it over the years the crust of the planet
is mostly made up of graphite a very pure form of carbon that is able to convert into diamonds after
being struck by asteroids why is this significant well researchers now have reason to believe that
the crust of mercury could actually contain up to 16 quadrillion tons of diamonds according to
geologist Kevin Cannon who presented his findings at the lunar and planetary science conference the
pressure away from asteroids or comets striking the surface of the planet at tens of kilometers
per second could actually transform that graphite into diamonds he clarified however that the
diamonds may not be the refined sparkly ones we see here but rather a messy mixture with graphite
and other carbons if this is to be believed mercury just keeps getting cooler and cooler
as if having no moons volcanoes ice or a possible diamond crust wasn't enough
a team of international scientists have now proven that mercury just like earth
has geomagnetic storms what are geomagnetic storms you ask simply put it is a disturbance
in the planet's magnetosphere caused by the transfer of energy from the solar wind
storms of this kind on the earth are what produce the aurora and can disrupt radio
communications according to the paper published in the journal science China technological
sciences the processes of these geomagnetic storms are quite similar to the ones on earth
as they established in a previously released paper that Mercury ii has a ring current the
key difference though is that mercury does not have any atmosphere and an extremely weak
magnetic field it was an observed coronal mass ejection or an ejected cloud of the sun's plasma
that gave the scientists the key that they were looking for it compressed mercury's ring
current on its sun-facing side and increased the current's energy after analyzing data
from messenger it showed that there was indeed the presence of a ring current intensification
which is essential for triggering these types of magnetic storms however it doesn't necessarily
mean that mercury has auroral displays like we see on earth though that would be amazing since the
solar wind particles on mercury do not encounter any atmosphere instead they may reach the surface
unimpeded and would probably only be seen through an x-ray but nonetheless the unexpected discovery
comes as a pleasant surprise and only makes us more curious about the cratered planet
in comparison to the amount of knowledge we have gained over the years of planets like mars
and even our moon for that matter not much is really known about mercury as of now we have the
Bepi Colombo Mission Europe and Japan joint first ever mission under the ESA leadership to Mercury
which will focus on studying the planet and how it was formed to look forward to
the mission is also highly promising in terms of mineral exploration and could
tell us whether the planet's crust contains diamonds after all launched in 2018 it is
right now on a seven-year journey to mercury and will arrive at mercury somewhere in late 2025.
it has sent back some stunning images even from Venus as it makes its way towards mercury if
there is one thing for certain these new findings are just the beginning and when it comes to the
small planet we have barely begun to scratch the surface Mercury has and always will be an enigma
until we have better technology and spacecrafts to carry out future missions and probes the little
planet will continue zooming around the sun just waiting for when we will be able to unravel more
of its secrets do you think we should explore Mercury some more let us know in the comments
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more amazing videos from us thanks for watching we'll see you in the next video