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Sun, May 22, 2022 | 22:30
Science
Large ice deposits found on Mercury: scientists
수성 극점에 얼음 존재 확인
Posted : 2012-11-30 18:16
Updated : 2012-11-30 18:16
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Scientists Thursday announced new evidence that Mercury, the planet orbiting nearest the Sun, hosts massive caches of ice and revealed new information on how water reached our solar system's inner planets.


"The new data indicate the water ice in Mercury's polar regions, if spread over an area the size of Washington DC, would be more than two miles (3.2 kilometers) thick," said David Lawrence, a researcher participating with NASA's mission to study Mercury.

Though much of Mercury is boiling hot, its axis of rotation is nearly parallel to the Sun -- which means the poles of the planet are never hit by the Sun's heating rays.

Scientists have long hypothesized these shadowy poles could harbor frozen water and other interesting materials.

In 1991, that theory got a boost when a powerful telescope in Puerto Rico detected "radar-bright patches" at the poles, often in spots where a previous mission in the 1970s had found large impact craters.

For the first time, new data from the Messenger spacecraft, which landed on Mercury in 2011, allows for a detailed model of just what's going on at Mercury's mysterious poles.

Images from Messenger confirmed that the radar-bright patches are all within cooler, shadowed regions, consistent with the theory they could be ice spots.
The spacecraft's neutron spectrometer also analyzed hydrogen concentrations as a way of determining the presence of water, which is a molecule composed of hydrogen and oxygen.


In the coldest spots, the water was on the surface, but in slightly warmer regions, where the ice might have melted, it was covered by a dark material with a lower concentration of hydrogen.

The researchers said this dark material could actually be the key to explaining how the water got there in the first place.

The dark material, which serves as insulation, is likely a mix of complex organic compounds, which were "delivered to Mercury by the impacts of comets and volatile-rich asteroids," explained David Paige, another researcher involved in the project.

Those comets and asteroids, he added, were "the same objects that likely delivered water to the innermost planet."

"For more than 20 years the jury has been deliberating on whether the planet closest to the Sun hosts abundant water ice in its permanently shadowed polar regions," said Sean Solomon of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

"Messenger has now supplied a unanimous affirmative verdict," said Solomon, the principal investigator of the Messenger mission.

"But the new observations have also raised new questions," he added. "Do the dark materials in the polar deposits consist mostly of organic compounds? What kind of chemical reactions has that material experienced?

"Are there any regions on or within Mercury that might have both liquid water and organic compounds? Only with the continued exploration of Mercury can we hope to make progress on these new questions," he said.

Three papers describing the Messenger findings were published Thursday in the online edition of Science Express. (AFP)


수성 극점에 얼음 존재 확인
태양과 가장 가까운 행성인 수성의 극점에 실제로 거대한 얼음이 존재하는 것으로 확인됐다. 미 항공우주국(NASA)의 데이비드 로렌스는 29일(현지시간) 수성탐사선 메신저호가 보내온 새로운 자료를 볼 때 '수성의 극지방에 얼음이 존재하며 이를 워싱턴 D.C. 정도의 장소에 넓게 퍼트리면 3.2km 두께가 될 것'이라고 밝혔다. 수성은 표면 대부분이 펄펄 끓을 만큼 뜨거운 것으로 알려졌지만 회전축이 태양과 거의 평행선상에 놓여 있어 극지방은 태양의 영향을 받지 않는다. 이 때문에 과학자들은 오랫동안 이 그늘진 극점에 얼음을 비롯한 흥미로운 물질이 존재할 것으로 추정해왔다. 지난 1991년 푸에르토리코의 망원경이 수성의 극지방에서 '환하게 빛나는 부분'을 발견하면서 이런 이론은 더욱 설득력을 얻었다. 하지만 실제로 수성의 극지방에서 무슨 일이 일어나고 있는지 세부 내용을 파악하게 된 것은 이번이 처음이다. 메신저호가 보내온 이미지를 보면 수성의 빛나는 부분은 모두 차갑고 그늘진 지역에 있어 이 지점이 얼음일 수 있다는 이론과 일치한다. 메신저호는 중성자 스펙트로 미터를 이용해 수소 농도를 분석해 물의 존재 여부도 확인했다. 수성에 실제로 거대한 얼음이 존재한다는 것이 확인됨에 따라 물이 어떻게 태양계 내행성에까지 도달할 수 있었는지에 관한 의문도 풀 수 있을 것으로 기대된다. 수성의 차가운 지점에서는 표면에서 물이 발견됐지만 약간 따뜻한 지점은 얼음이 녹았고, 수소 농도가 낮은 검은 물질로 뒤 덮여 있는 것으로 나타났다. 전문가들은 유기화합물 덩어리 같은 이 검은 물질이 애초에 물이 어떻게 수성의 극지방에 존재하게 됐는지를 밝혀낼 핵심 열쇠가 될 수 있다고 보고 있다. 수성 연구 프로젝트에 참여한 데이비드 페이지는 이 검은 물질이 '혜성과 소행성의 충돌로 수성에 옮겨졌을 것'이라고 설명하고 이 혜성과 소행성이 내행성에도 물을 옮겼을 가능성이 있다고 덧붙였다. 컬럼비아대 라몽 도허티 지구관측소의 션 솔로몬은 '20년 이상 태양에 가장 가까운 행성이 극지방에 충분한 얼음을 저장하고 있을지에 관한 신중한 논의가 이어져 왔다'며 '메신저호가 이를 확실히 확인시켰다'고 말했다. 메신저호가 발견한 내용은 이날 사이언스 익스프레스 온라인판에 발표됐다. (워싱턴 AFP=연합뉴스)
 
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