Major Discoveries About Mercury May Rewrite a Few Textbooks

[@Deeplycloseted435]

Its so crazy how Mercury and Pluto were one paragraph in the solar system books of my childhood, and now we are learning so much about the crazy geochemistry. What we have learned in the last 40 years about the entire solar system is wild.

[@Aethanite]

I swear Anton is the David Attonbrough of space. Fantastic work as always.

[@โนรีคอกเบิร์น]

NO. Because Anton doesnt lie and use 8 & 12 year old video floor cuttings to build the WEF NWO climate change agenda crap

[@Kitty-CatDaddy]

Can you imagine the interest he would generate if the prime TV channels had him doing documentaries of space like DA?

[@generalmarkmilleyisbenedic8895]

So anton is just a narrator?

[@RobKaiser_SQuest]

Man FOH, even if you ignore everything else Attenborough has done in his 70-odd year career, he is THE narrator anyone you ask would be able to name.

[@napoleonfeanor]

You mean someone mostly known for his voice? Anton is simply Anton. A guy who does great science communication.

[@RWBHere]

Mercury is truly a fascinating planet. And, the more we learn about it, the more interesting it becomes.

[@Moho_braccatus_]

It's such a slept on planet too. underrated tbh

[@ChappyPalladium]

Fun fact : The core of Mercury is about the same size as the core of the planet Mars. Because of Mercury's high density, it has the same surface gravity as Mars, even though it is only 1⁄3 the size of Mars.

[@Andrew-13579]

@@ChappyPalladiumHow do you get “1/3 the size of Mars”? I calculate from Wikipedia data that Mercury is about 72% the diameter of Mars and about 52% the mass. But surface gravity is very close to the same. Although, I was thinking they were much closer in size. So, I am surprised by that, nonetheless. 🙂

[@who4743]

How does he make an extremely interesting video every single day? I always give the videos a like before it starts because Anton has never made a video that bored me. But it still is amazing that someone can make such interesting content so often yet still calls us mere mortals wonderful.

[@RandomStuff-dl1gd]

A team and of course his good work ethic

[@seancooper5007]

Science

[@Plus_Escapee]

A source of infinite discoveries and a dedication to share will supply interesting subject matter every day beyond our lifespans.

[@somerandomdude5171]

He IS A.I.

[@matthewdavies2057]

Because he's a great guy and kinda smart of course.

[@vileluca]

One day we're gonna find out Mercury was once a gas giant core or something

[@handsomedevil7072]

Thats what I instinctively thought when I first heard how dense it is

[@telotawa]

i like your pfp :3 do you have a full res somewhere?

[@shangrilaladeda]

The sun compacts planets that get close to it, so the closer to the sun the more dense a planet becomes, easier that way for the sun to eat the planets

[@grarav8948]

🤯

[@Battlenude]

so how do we deal with the heat..?

[@Yezpahr]

The cheesy smile at the end makes the video 1000x better.

[@davidmoore5925]

And the wave.

[@Ken-rq9xr]

School pictures type smile 😁. I remember mine 😅😅😅. 🤓😽🦜

[@carmenmccauley585]

Love it.

[@andrewdewit4711]

Yeah, as unpretentious as the universe is infinite

[@stefaniasmanio5857]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

It seems every time we write off a planet as "a dull rock in space," it still has surprises for us. Another mystery about Mercury that needs to be solved is...if it DID lose most of its mantle in a collision, where did it all go? Future missions to asteroids may shed light on this if any of them share similar composition to Mercury's surface.

[@earlworley-bd6zy]

One side of the mantle?,No because Mercury is round so it would have to have been several massive hits?,Unless it was molten when formed & got hit?,Getting smaller would mean something is getting colder?

[@earlworley-bd6zy]

The sun or mercury getting colder?,or both?,Maybe better said not as hot?

[@paintMonkey_]

Anton, you must be one of the hardest working educators out there. Another fantastic informative video that succinctly covers such fresh new understandings, thank you.

[@SamtheIrishexan]

Only Anton could cover textbook changing information in 16 minutes.

[@kayakMike1000]

I am quite sure Anton has a few people helping him. It's not only Anton, he likely has a small team to help him produce the show. Not to mention quite a few people supporting him on patreon. Credit where credit is due.🎉

[@dcy665]

@@kayakMike1000 this is why you want to discredit Anton himself. Got it.

[@AngelaMStovall]

​@kayakMike1000 Well I don't see why it couldn't be, he's hyper focused on one area & very intelligent. But even if it's 50 ppl you're "giving credit to where credit is due" to imaginary ppl that you don't even know if they even exist or not 🤔, why❓️ Also every content creator of his size has a Patreon but come on you know they don't do the work they pay the bills so he can so he's thankful for that but...REALLY 🙄❓️

[@DBFIU]

​@kayakMike1000 if you've been following anton as long as i have you'd know that the quality of his content has always been this good. So your assumption on giving credit to his "team", whether it exists or not, is irrelevant.

[@sicfxmusic]

​@@kayakMike1000 You couldn't have written this comment without the inventor of internet or computer keyboard designers. Your life is nothing special mate, just one of the breeder among billions who have lived and died.

[@mattmiller4917]

If I could only watch one YT channel, I would probably choose Anton's.

[@marksuplinskas3474]

Thanks!

[@jarodmasci3445]

Thank you for the awesome summary Anton! How you make this material approachable, interesting, and yet so precise.......I have no idea!

[@JMM33RanMA]

There is a lot of SciFi and some real science speculating that the original 5th planet between Mars and Jupiter either blew up, suffered a cataclysmic collision, or never completely coalesced into one planet; which gives us the present asteroid belt. Although this video doesn't directly suggest this, the notion will probably surface soon. What a provocative video, thanks Anton!

[@oberonpanopticon]

Dude we solved that mystery literally a hundred years ago. It’s just leftovers from the formation of the solar system, there was no 5th planet (between mars and Jupiter, anyways). Never has been, never will be. Your idea is comically outdated. Take it from me - I read old astronomy books for fun.

[@grantschiff7544]

Pure speculation

[@JMM33RanMA]

@@grantschiff7544 That's why SciFi is called "speculative fiction" or, sometimes, "Futurology."

[@JMM33RanMA]

@@oberonpanopticon You didn't read what I wrote carefully enough to make a reasonable statement. Try again.

[@Kai_Ning]

First thing i wondered finishing the video was that, could this be related to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter ? I guess time will tell.

[@jokerace8227]

Just the oddly large eccentricity of Mercury's orbit suggests it probably had a different, maybe larger orbit in the past, so it may have indeed been brought into the current eccentric orbit by by a large impactor.

[@marcoflumino]

Not really, Einstein explain the eccentricity with his relativity, still we cannot exclude that at the moment.

[@zimriel]

@@marcoflumino Einstein explained the mismatch between observations of Mercury's orbit against Newtonian expectations. Einstein did not explain how Mercury became eccentric in the first place.

[@marcoflumino]

@@zimriel You are correct on that!

[@grundged]

I got mad respect for Mercury now! ✊️

[@Riogrande1964]

Fascinating. Anton is a gifted science communicator

[@SockPuppet-q4x]

Saw the aurora for the first time in my life last night. Because of the light pollution here it was hard to tell that it wasn't just a cloud or fog lit up by the lights. Still once I knew what it was it was cool. Wish I could have seen it from out in the country.

[@Kargoneth]

Congratulations! I've been accosted by clouds the night before last and then wildfire smoke last night. Can't catch a break.

[@mistymick4905]

I nearly skipped this one. I am so glad I didn’t. Good job Anton & Team.😊

[@jimcurtis9052]

Wonderful as always Anton. Thank you. 😁🙂🤘

[@soroosh82]

I always believed that Mercury was initially a hot Jupiter. Probably why the core is so big and has so much thorium.

[@bbartky]

As always, great video Anton! And yes, Mercury definitely needs more attention.👍 And I see a lot of people asking if Mercury could be the impactor called Theia that created the Moon. Both Anton and Fraser Cain have made several videos showing why that can’t be true. In fact, Anton has a really great video about how we may have found what remains of Theia within the Earth’s mantle. It’s really great and you should check it out! Also, computer modeling shows that Theia must have had an orbit that was very similar to Earth’s orbit. Where Mercury is now eliminates it from ever being in an orbit similar to that of Earth’s.

[@AZyzk]

Thanks, Anton! I really enjoy these types of videos.

[@MyraSeavy]

WoW!! This was very interesting! 😊

[@carmenmccauley585]

They all are!

[@MyraSeavy]

@@carmenmccauley585 True! 😊

[@Felled-angel]

Your videos are amazing Your dead eye delivery tells me your more invested in the facts, great work as usual 👏

[@BrianFedirko]

Anton Rocks!!! Love the stuff. Keep on Rockin Anton! Gr8! Peace ☮💜Love

[@suziperret468]

You are wonderful Anton! Thank you!

[@anatrejos8879]

❤❤❤Anton much love to you and family❤❤❤

[@thomasjefferson9310]

Long time been listening to anton, finally had some time --> AGAIN, excellent topics. You've my full support from belgium

[@carolinestagg6807]

Thank you for all of your fascinating posts!!

[@jeffrogers210]

Much interesting new information. Thanks, Anton!

[@WarmFuzzyVibes]

Anton, you have done another wonderful exploration video! Thank you! 😊

[@eSKAone-]

Nature is so interesting. I want to stay young for a thousand years 💟🌌☮️

[@jonathandock8416]

Very interesting ! Thank you for the video ! All the best from Belgium

[@Unmannedair]

I almost have to wonder if photo nuclear erosion is a thing due to Mercury's close proximity to the Sun. This is basically the forced nuclear reactions due to energetic radiation. Things like absorbing protons and neutrons due to a lack of any mechanism that would keep them slamming into the surface.

[@douglaswilkinson5700]

The solar wind exists mainly of charged particles mainly protons and electrons with a few heavier ions. Given that neutrons can exist only 15 minutes outside of the atomic nucleus and the solar wind takes 3-4 days to reach Mercury there are essentially no free neutrons reaching Mercury.

[@Zol_Kenney]

Mercury is the only terrestrial planet that hasn’t had a lander on it. I mean even Saturn’s moon Titan had a lander touch down on its surface. Based on these recent findings reported here by Anton, a Mercury lander should definitely be the next planetary mission! I bet it would cost less than 1% the military budget.

[@SilverSin]

Thank you, wonderful person.

[@genuinefreewilly5706]

Hello Anton there is a massive solar storm hitting the earth Canada and many countries currently are seeing it. Hopefully I will see it tonight and take some pictures. My neighbors are showing me pictures and with little effort they are amazing and different I found myself in the difficult position of trying explain it. It is not an easy task

[@slowmobius7114]

Thanks for the great content, Anton!

[@amandaofhouserobinson6707]

Wow. That's amazing! Can't wait to hear how this develops! Thankyou Anton as always ! ❤😊

[@wout123100]

welldone, always good well informed info here.

[@bentup.]

Learning is fun! Thank you Anton!

[@gartengeflugel924]

Hi, could Mercury be the remainder of Theia that did not get absorbed into earth or the moon? Very interesting video, thanks for posting.

[@lucidstream5661]

I had the same thought! Had to scroll down far to find it.

[@ashhempsall9803]

thank you Anton and team if there is such! You raise the general bar, 🐈‍⬛

[@mhick3333]

Great presentation as always !

[@caroligel9229]

Incredible. Thank you

[@patrickbureau1402]

My Bachlor refrigerator has the same phenomena !🍀

[@danielnarbett]

Wow that's very cool new info/theories thank you! ❤

[@chaoslab]

Finding more about the inner core collision history of our planets would really open up early bombardment. Exciting stuff.

[@susancaleca4796]

That was very interesting. One of your best!

[@jawharp9467]

Why doesn’t Mercury take anything seriously? She doesn’t have enough gravity.

[@marcoflumino]

Au contrair, it has too much large core, nearly twice the one Mars had...

[@dollyherron4857]

Good video thanks Anton

[@sharkembark4784]

Thank you Anton! Very cool! 👍

[@Johannes7707]

Thank you Anton!!!!

[@volkssturmer5820]

Danke schon Anton!!

[@DerIchBinDa]

You are not blessed with Umlauts it seems...

[@FloozieOne]

To tthink I always thought of Mercury as a hot dead place; space never ceases to amaze.

[@tayzonday]

What if Gaia’s impact with Theia had a third chunk that flew off and got captured by the Sun? (In an orbit parallel to the solar system’s orbital plane since that’s the plane Gaia and Theia had momentum on).

[@manofsan]

Yeah, I was wondering about that. Could Mercury be some remnant of a collision that formed the Earth and the Moon? Or what about the fact that it has thorium levels similar to Mars? Could Mars and Mercury therefore have some common origin? Could they both have emerged from some collision?

[@tayzonday]

@@manofsan Many scenarios may have played out when the solar system contained protoplanets forming from the hot disc. It’s plausible that an impact could have formed Mars and thrown the remnant of Mercury into a closer orbit.

[@oberonpanopticon]

Very unlikely - our simulations of the moon’s formation aren’t perfect, but it’s pretty definitive that no giant planet sized chunk of core went flying off into an eccentric solar orbit. It’d also just be too convenient.

[@tayzonday]

@@oberonpanopticon I’m pretty sure those simulations began with the parameter of “how could the present-day result emerge from two objects impacting” without including a planet size chunk becoming Mercury in the mandated output. Changing the required output might change the derived input.

[@marcoflumino]

No, that core has been found inside our planet, Mercury is not Theia. Mercury core is still intact.

[@rogerdudra178]

Interesting analysis.

[@Kamodomon]

Ooooo interesting finds. Can't wait for more science to be done to narrow down the possibilities here.

[@SqueakyChase]

Anton, great video. This got me to thinking about who would live longer a) a man standing in the immediate blast of a nuclear weapon or b) a man standing on the surface of Mercury?

[@joelmckinney16]

In the image of the field of evaporative holes there seems to be some kind of orientation, as if the region were raked by a Titan, or a sedimentary region tilted and then eroded.

[@velvet_bass]

You the best!!

[@jedimastermadeyejester7272]

I don't know why but mercury has always been my favorite one

[@yvonnemiezis5199]

Very interesting knowledge, thanks 👍😊

[@Aardvark892]

In the RPG called Space:1889, Mercury is tidally locked, and there is a river the circles the planet right where the day/night line is. Great game, and a lot of fun had exploring the river.

[@mrrob7531]

Awesome as always Anton

[@alpha_tigerplayz]

Антон спасибо тебе за то что ты делаешь♥️

[@PhysicsNative]

Outstanding, thanks Anton. Bepi-C will give us a new window on Mercury, a migrant planet.

[@philochristos]

Maybe Mercury was once part of a planet between mars and Jupiter, and that planet got destroyed, leaving the astroid belt, and Mercury. Whatever destroyed the original planet is also what sent Mercury to a different orbit.

[@zimriel]

If so we'd have to see something that looks like Mercury's crust in the asteroid belt. We do not. We do see things that look like Vesta's crust, by contrast.

[@Dmitry-ert]

From the wikipedia: "The total mass of the asteroid belt is estimated to be 3% that of the Moon." So, mass isn't enough even for collision remnants

[@Dmitry-ert]

In school textbooks, they like to draw a belt in all its glory. But seriously, it's not worth even mentioning if you look close on it

[@rebeccawinter472]

It’s a fun thought - and given what Anton said I can see the logical leap. But, I don’t know if the mass calculations or if rock types are similar enough. Of course, we don’t know for sure what Mercury’s outer regions cmwrre comprised of. There’s also parts of the belt, some asteroids which are higher in volatiles - Ceres for example.

[@XxModzinActionxX]

Food for thought, what IF mercury was the core of planet nine, once it wrecked havoc through out the solar system it collided with something and slowed down enough to be captured in the orbit it's currently in, since theoretically it migrated from somewhere around mars... Which ironically would of been kinda around where planet nine would of been. 🤷

[@marcoflumino]

Not possible, reason, the orbits of the objects in the outer solar system are too young to been made at the the time when we think Mercury moved towards the current position.

[@XxModzinActionxX]

@@marcoflumino correct, but it takes time to develop orbital trajectories. Its original path may have set things in motion where we are beginning to see the results. On a solar scale especially with things on the further reaches it would take a long time, IF mercury was a core of a destroyed planet,that mass has to be somewhere.. on its way around our plain it probably nudged alot of remnants from the development stage of our solar system, or caused an imbalance and changed the orbital vector of another planet as it migrated. Alas, it was just a theory with very little knowledge invested. A fun thought, perhaps even the beginning of a answer of solar enquiries and origins.

[@Lightningchase1973]

It's not Mercury's speed, it's the even so much faster speed of any object plunging down from an high orbit to such a close orbit, requiring breaking to plunge down at all, and then more breaking to get a round instead of highly elliptical orbit.

[@qwertyuiop1st]

From the price of textbooks we know that textbook publishers do everything they can to raise the cost of their product, thus it would make sense for them to be lobbying for lots and lots of space missions and other scientific investigations so that students have to buy new editions all the time instead of using the books their older siblings or parents used.

[@marcoflumino]

And what is your point? The reason for space missions has nothing to do with textbooks! The only thing you can prove or correctly say, is that the publishers take advantage of space missions discoveries to make new books, not the opposite.

[@qwertyuiop1st]

@@marcoflumino Evidently you have not been blessed by the humor fairy. I was using sarcasm and satire in positing a conspiracy of textbook publishers pushing scientific discovery as a way of self-enrichment at the expense of the rest of us. It was referencing how the powerful so often do take advantage of their positions, and that scientific investigations often have to fit into the expectations of funders in order to be funded, as well as the plethora of active conspiracy theories about some really whacky things. Does it help now that I've explained it?

[@oberonpanopticon]

@@qwertyuiop1stI don’t blame them - the line between sarcasm and stupidity doesn’t exist in the KZbin comment section. There’s no way of telling.

[@douglaswilkinson5700]

​@@qwertyuiop1stI've already see some textbooks sold on flash-drives. The student can even subscribe to downloadable updates.

[@thekinginyellow1744]

Curse you! You figured out the real reason that Pluto was redesignated a "Dwarf Planet". Now the black helicopters will come for you and take away your birthday!

[@bixbysnyder-00]

I remember in school they taught us Mercury was just a rock. Very exciting to see all these new discoveries. Dont judge a book (or planet) by its cover.

[@danoblue]

Very interesting video about a planet rarely spotlighted. Perhaps the Caloris Basin reflects a collision from the past which might have changed Mercury's orbit. Planetary migrations were discussed by Velikovsky in his book Worlds in Collision. He may have been wrong in the details, but it's becoming more and more obvious that our early solar system was a very different place than it is today. I look forward to the results of the Beppo-Colombo mission.

[@misterlyle.]

That sounds like a truly tragic origin for the planet Mercury. As we are informed, Earth also suffered a catastrophic collision in its own origin, but instead of having its outer layers stripped away, Earth increased in mass and gained the benefit of a sizeable moon.

[@sluggo3slug]

What is ”tragic” about it? Strange choice of word.

[@misterlyle.]

@@sluggo3slug Tragic covers calamitous and disastrous. Repeated sounds like the first part of a word as with "truly tragic" and "catastrophic collision" often improve readability.

[@rogwarrior1018]

Saturn is beautiful and as a gas giant my favorite BUT Mercury is my favorite of the rocky planets. I love the fact it laughs at the Sun. It rotates/orbits so fast not all the ice has melted. I love that, so close to the Sun and yet ice exists. I also love the colors the filters can produce when taking photos of it. It's beautiful and any planet that has a tail......yea gotta love it.

[@richardthunderbay8364]

Amazing. I love this channel.

[@af556]

What is the temperature on the dark side of mercury?

[@BRITISH.STRUMMER]

ANTON! MATE I LOST YOUR CHANNEL, I USED TO WATCH YOUR UNIVERSE SANDBOX VIDEOS You made my childhood mates, you and spike viper made me love science ❤

[@barbarafritchie2000]

Thank you.

[@keysersoze8762]

wow! left-handed Anton in the end!

[@denijane89]

Moho is cool, I don't know why it's so underrated. Because technically, it's the closest planet on average, you can launch stuff to it often (provided you have the dv). Also the Sun ought to be huge there, so kind of very impressive. I really wish we could send a robot mission to Mercury (a rover!), it would be so cool. Now I desperately want to play KSP and check on my Moho expedition. I really liked the comet-Mercury from the video, that was pretty spectacular.

[@FrancisFjordCupola]

I've heard about the possibility of Mercury starting out Earth-like for about decades. That it's basically the stripped core with the rest blown away by the sun. I think some mentions about Mercury's orbit and how much energy it takes to get there (because of the orbital) would have been nice. What I also think wasn't helpful was our initial reaction to finding "dead rocks" out there. We had all sorts of fantasies what live would be like on Mars, on Venus, on Jupiter and so on. Then we went to space, visited them and found dead rocks. That put a damper on things. Hmm.. what about if Mars and Mercury could have bunched up together, like the two proto-planets that through collision brought about the Earth and Moon.

[@patrickm3981]

If I remember right there was a while ago a study reported where they proposed that Mercury might have been a gas giant or an ice giant (forgot which one). They based their claim on the size distribution of impact craters. On a planet with no atmosphere there should be all sizes of craters in a certain ratio. Though this is not what they found. There were large and small craters but a shortage of mid-sized ones. This imply a thick atmosphere. The reason is that in a thick atmosphere large impactors will still go through and crate large craters. On the other hand small rocks will burn up before they reach the surface. Mid size impactors will still reach the surface but often will break into smaller peaces and partially burn before the impact. Due to this there will be small craters but a lot less mid sized ones. If I remember right the pattern they found on Mercury imply that it had a thick atmosphere.

[@fluffycrumpetbaby]

11:11 That instantly got me thinking.... How cool would it be if Mercury was the planet that smashed into earth, and perhaps it was less of a planets merging and more of earth stealing a large part of mercury but mercury's core was going so fast it just kept going. Of course that sounds highly improbable, but would be very cool.

[@theofungi6562]

Hit, run, and left us with a moon to take care of! Typical!

[@mike-me7om]

I wonder what the temperature gradient would be in Mercury's crust. Obvious too hot for life near the surface in most places, and too hot if you get deep enough but could there be a habitable zone at certain depths? Maybe underground near the poles ?

[@dragnothlecoona]

mercury can be semiterraformed by first building up an argo, neon atmosphere for pressure. thanks to the heavyness of these gases, they should not be lost due to the extreme heating of its surface. then once about 0.5 - 0.8 bar of pressure is built up, small amount of water is to be added to mercury. thanks to the extreme temperatures, on the hot side, the water would become water vapor, while on the other, ice. on the hot side with the addition of water the pressure should be made to reach about 2-3 bar in total. over time, the gases would form a white steam cloud around the planet./ raising the albedo leading to an extremly hot upper atmosphere, but cooler and more moderate temperatures at its darkened but lukewarm surface. the polar regions would reach temperatures of around 60 degrees F. then by adding around 0.3-0.4 bar of oxygen, would allow for a fully or at least partially terraformed planet. mainly life could only exist at the poler regions where temps would be earth like and pressures would be lower than the rest of the planet. in total, an atmosphere of roughly 0.2 bar oxygen, 0.2 bar nitrogen, 0.2 bar neon, 0.2 bar argon, and 0.2 bar water vapor at the poles. though the water vapor would be in the upper atmosphere comming down as rain, so percentage wise things might differ at different atmospheric layers.

[@phaedrussocrates7636]

Thank you

[@inmyopinion6662]

Learned something new. I didn't know mercury had a tail.

[@alexandrerobert2656]

hello wonderful person is what a good intro

[@davidboyle1902]

I’m actually not surprised. Even today, discussions about the planets, all the planets, starts with planets essentially as we see them today. I’ve been waiting all my life for the papers discussing “how to build planets”, and have not seen even one. And okay, it’s a subject fraught with speculation. That said, I have always envisioned the proto solar nebula as a very messy disk of dust and bits of rock that, over time, kept accumulating more and more stuff. In that view, the very early solar system had LOTS of planetoids, or the true building blocks of our eventual retinue of planets. When they joined hands, big things happened. Two planets are now hypothesized to have had big collisions late in their formation: earth and Pluto. In my view, EVERY planet grew that way, with the gas giants scarfing up the majority of everything not nailed down. Those big late collisions could do lots of transforming, including growing planets, blasting some into pieces, and sending planetary cores into very different orbits. Maybe with the advent of AI we will eventually see scenarios on how planets get built from scratch. Love the vid btw.

[@gregsonwoods]

Will be interesting to see if any of this fits the timings of Nice model migrations and the LHB... or is he saying it's much more recent than that?

[@gregsonwoods]

(relatively more recent)

[@anatrejos8879]

Question any Iridium found in Mercury and Venus?❤

[@douglaswilkinson5700]

The heavy metals like platinum, osmium, iridium, etc. sank to Earth's, Mercury's and Venus' core while it was molten. The heavy metals near the surface were deposited there during the late heavy bombardment and later impacts.

[@rebeccawinter472]

Wow. I was sorta ho hum about Mercury. But now, for all these reasons, I’m really excited. Are there any rough estimates (highs and lows) for how large Mercury may have been? E.g. Mars sized to Earth sized (smaller?) (bigger??). Thanks!

[@DavidRose-m8s]

If a sun forms by a spinning double vortex collapsing dominantly upon the poles then there is an centrifuge escape velocity built into the forming stars disc with heavy elements tending to be captured by nearer planetary discs explaining the presence of thorium, and many other elements. Once these discs have enough mass they can also compete for gas capture via their respective vortex's. The central Star is more dominant at this in the inner solar system, but the outer planets can call on more relative volume of gas from the star forming region.

[@ernestmac13]

When he mentioned Mercury starting somewhere other than its current location; it reminded me of the damage a passing rouge planet or star could do to a solar system's orbit. Just one reason why humanity needs to develop into a multi-silar aystem civalization, so humanity as a species can survive even such a disaster. I have considered the feasability of attaching a colony to a commit; either directly ro it's surface, buried deep inside it, or teathered far behind it, which of xourse would bw a one way trip unless the in commit ia one like Haley's Comit, which orbit takes 75.84 years. Imagine if we could place radio telescopes on it's aurface that could survive such a journey; and how using images taken along it's journey could show us more than we can aee from earth orbit.

[@caejones2792]

As the one planet whose role in the habitability of Earth has yet to be suggested by current best models, finding evidence of Mercurian migration feels like a major missing piece of the puzzle. Does make me wonder, though, if this hypothesis interferes with the Niece Model, which, if I remember correctly, came up with all those elaborate games of Musical Orbits that the outer planets were playing so as to arrange the inner planets correctly. I recall basically no mention of Mercury there, and the implication is that the inner system was super delicate and it feels weird that every publication on the topic would just conveniently forget to mention something like this. So, does this invalidate, or extend the Neice Model? Tune in next year to find out, I guess.

[@WilsonPendarvis-tn3wm]

Unrelated topic… Anton, have you analyzed Betty Hills’ star map?

[@altair8598]

Does anyone know whether the deposits have formed on the side of Mercury that always faces the Sun, or on the cold side? Thanks.

[@smellthel]

It's absolutely insane how much there is to our solar system! It's planets are far from the giant rocks I once thought they were.

[@bijanajamlou5152]

We have so few samples of planetary bodies we closely studied, our models and expectations are at best first guesses.

[@jameswheeler6954]

Mercury … the Dark Horse of the solar system 😏🔥💪