Happy Atheist Forum

General => Science => Topic started by: Tank on October 03, 2011, 08:15:32 AM

Title: 'Hollows' mark Mercury's surface
Post by: Tank on October 03, 2011, 08:15:32 AM
'Hollows' mark Mercury's surface (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15113388)

QuoteHands up who thought Mercury was just a dull rock circling close to the Sun?

The latest data returned by Nasa's Messenger probe shows that view couldn't be further from the truth.

In among a raft of papers published in this week's edition of the journal Science, researchers reveal strange hollows that pock Mercury's surface.

Irregular in shape, these depressions seem to form in the bright deposits that have been excavated where meteorites have impacted the surface.

The Messenger team cannot be sure what has caused them, but on Mars similar features are also known to exist...

Lots of interesting stuff being discovered by looking rather than by guessing and speculation! Science rocks!
Title: Re: 'Hollows' mark Mercury's surface
Post by: Sandra Craft on October 03, 2011, 08:27:12 AM
Quote from: Tank on October 03, 2011, 08:15:32 AM
'Hollows' mark Mercury's surface (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15113388)

QuoteHands up who thought Mercury was just a dull rock circling close to the Sun?


I thought it was a tiny, hot rock orbiting close to the sun. 

I'm going to check around and see if I can find any pictures of this -- I know they said "hollows" but my imagination is running wild with the idea of caves.