2024-07-25 22:35:25
NASA’s Messenger probe data… Possibility of diamond mantle existence
Mercury mystery solution clues expected… Dia may have ended volcanic activity
An analysis has shown that there may be a huge layer of diamonds hidden beneath the surface of Mercury, the first and smallest planet in the solar system. It is possible that carbon was converted into diamonds under intense heat and pressure during the early stages of Mercury’s formation.
According to academic circles on the 26th, a research team at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium analyzed data from NASA’s Mercury probe ‘MESSENGER’ and announced the results of a study that there may be a diamond mantle about 16 km (10 miles) thick beneath Mercury’s crust. These research results were reported through the international academic journal ‘Nature Communications’.
Mercury has characteristics that set it apart from the other planets in the solar system: it has a very dark surface, an unusually dense core, and its volcanic activity ended early, around 3.5 billion years ago, much earlier than that of the other planets.
In addition to these characteristics, Mercury has traces of graphite, which is made of carbon. Academics see these traces as evidence that a carbon-rich magma ocean existed in Mercury’s early history.
The analysis is that a carbon-rich mantle would have formed beneath the surface due to the carbon-rich magma ocean. Previously, it was expected that the mantle would be composed of ‘graphene’, one of the carbon isotopes, but this research result showed that the main component would be diamond. This seems to be because the pressure applied at the boundary between Mercury’s mantle and core was newly measured as a result of the analysis of Messenger data.
The research team recreated the pressure and temperature inside Mercury in a laboratory on Earth. They applied pressure of more than 7 gigapascals and a temperature of more than 2177℃ to a ‘synthetic silicate’ that replaces the material found in Mercury’s mantle. 7 gigapascals is about 70,000 times stronger than the atmospheric pressure (normal pressure) we experience in our daily lives. They directly examined how the minerals found in Mercury’s mantle changed in a high-temperature, high-pressure environment.
Based on the results of this reproducible experiment, the research team estimated that the diamond layer in Mercury’s mantle was formed by two processes. The first hypothesis is that the magma ocean that existed on Mercury crystallized into diamond. However, it was expected that this would only form a very thin diamond layer at the boundary between the core and the mantle.
The second, more important hypothesis is that Mercury’s metallic core itself crystallized. The research team analyzed that when Mercury was formed about 4.5 billion years ago, the planet’s core was completely liquid, but over time it gradually crystallized, and in the process, a thick layer of diamond was created. Since the density of diamond is not as high as that of metal, it is predicted that after crystallization, it floated to the top of the core and stopped at the boundary between the core and the mantle.
In addition, this discovery may provide a clue that Mercury had a different formation process from other rocky planets in the solar system, such as Venus, Earth, and Mars. It is believed that Mercury was formed from a carbon-rich dust cloud closer to the sun than its current location. As a result, it may have formed a diamond layer with less oxygen and more carbon than other planets.
The researchers expressed hope that this discovery could provide clues to solving mysteries about Mercury, including why volcanic activity on Mercury ended sooner than on other planets in the solar system.
“The fact that Mercury’s volcanic activity was shorter than that of other rocky planets means that the planet cooled much faster,” the research team explained. “This is related to the planet’s small size, but it is possible that the diamond layer cooled the heat more quickly and ended the volcanic activity early. We are also working with the physics community to figure this out.”
The research team said the next step will be to investigate the thermal effects of the diamond layer at the boundary between Mercury’s core and mantle. Since the MESSENGER probe’s mission ended in 2015, the research team plans to use data from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)’s BepiColombo, which is scheduled to arrive at Mercury at the end of next year.
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2024-07-25 22:35:25