Mercury appears to be dark due to the abundance of carbon that originated deep below the surface of our solar system’s innermost planet, a new study has found. The planet reflects much less sunlight than the Moon, on which surface darkness is controlled by the abundance of iron—rich minerals that are known to be rare on Mercury’s surface, researchers said. Researchers led by Patrick Peplowski of the Johns Hopkins University in US have confirmed that a high abundance of carbon is present at Mercury’s surface. They have also found that the carbon most likely originated deep below the surface in the form of a now-disrupted and buried ancient graphite-rich crust, some of which was later brought to the surface by impact processes after most of Mercury’s current crust had formed. The researchers obtained data from NASA’s MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) spacecraft, the first space mission designed to orbit Mercury. “We used MESSENGER’s Neutron...
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