Iron snow in Mercury

2008/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Geologia
• Hidrologia

Steve Hauck and his team believe that Mercury's weak magnetic field is the result of a special mixture of iron and sulfur. This would explain that the area was 10,000 times weaker than expected.

The vibratory rotation of Mercury indicates that it has a molten core inside. Iron is a cast core, according to data. But the planet has cooled since its origin. Therefore, iron should be mixed with something to continue melting, such as sulfur, which remains liquid at low temperature.

Pressure models have been developed that would be found inside Mercury and have observed that at higher pressure, lower temperature is the mixture of liquid sulfur iron, both contrary to that ingested individually. This would generate a kind of iron snow on the outer edge of the core that, when precipitating, would cause a mixture of the liquid part of the core. Therefore, a special circulation of the core iron would be generated, which would cause a special vibration in the rotation of Mercury.