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Published online 30 April 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.423
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Mercury not so like the Moon
Messenger spacecraft reveals extensive volcanism on the planet Mercury.
Until recently, the layers of rock forming Mercury's crust were thought to be a lot like those of the Moon: cold, dead and full of the bright minerals found in the Earth-facing lunar highlands.
But after two visits from the Messenger spacecraft, the planet is looking less like the Moon and more like a place that has been ripped by fault-grinding tremors and pierced by planet-surfacing bouts of volcanic eruption — things associated with the bigger boys of the inner solar system.
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This is probably a very naive question, but could the cause of Mercury's potential tectonic activity be similar to that of Io's, since Mercury is so close to the Sun?