Mercury Magnetic Field Originated Four Billion Years Ago, Says a New Study
Magnetic field of mercury kicked off four billion years ago, according to a study that based its findings on MESSENGER data.
NASA's now-defunct MESSENGER spacecraft, that orbited Mercury for four years instead of the originally planned one year, relayed this useful data about the planet's magnetic field.
MESSENGER - MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, was a robotic NASA spacecraft, launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004 to study Mercury's chemical composition, geology and magnetic field.
The data was collected by the probe's magnetometer, which observed magnetism in the rocks on the planet's surface. The spacecraft captured this data when it flew at lower altitudes of 15 kilometers in 2014 end, 2015 beginning.
Researchers said the field may have been 100 times more powerful than what Mercury has today.
More data and analysis is needed to determine if Mercury's magnetic field operated continuously for the past four billion years or so, or if it was turned off and then restarted at some point, researchers added.
Like Earth, Mercury's magnetic field originates from what is called a dynamo - the motion of electrically conductive molten iron deep in the planet's core.
According to computer models, with a diameter of just 4,879 kilometres, or about one-third bigger than the moon, Mercury's core should have cooled and solidified long ago.
