Mercury / Messenger

NOTE: This object is currently being Updated with newely released data from the MESSENGER team, stand by :)

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A small Mercury globe.

Mercury, is the closest planet to the sun. A terrestrial planet 4,879km in diameter, it is smaller than the moon Ganymede, yet has twice the gravity and almost three times the density.

It's highly metallic composition gives rise to theories that Mercury might once have been part of a larger planet, whose outer crust has either been removed by a gigantic impact, or boiled off by an over-active sun during the formation of the early solar system, leaving behind what would have been the planet's iron core.

Normally a rather uniform grey, this globe makes use of NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft enhanced colour mosaic that enhances the chemical, mineralogical, and physical differences between the rocks.