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Title:
Origin and Bulk Chemical Composition of Mercury
Authors:
Prentice, Andrew J. R.; Jontof-Hutter, Daniel
Publication:
Highlights of Astronomy, Vol. 13, as presented at the XXVth General Assembly of the IAU - 2003 [Sydney, Australia, 13 - 26 July 2003]. Edited by O. Engvold. San Francisco, CA: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, ISBN 1-58381-189-3. XXIX + 1085 pp., 2005, p.73
Publication Date:
01/2005
Origin:
ARI; ADS
Bibliographic Code:
2005HiA....13...73P

Abstract

The planet Mercury is remarkable because its mean uncompressed density ˜5.3 g/cc implies a Fe-Ni mass content of ˜67%. This is more than twice the ˜32% metal fractions of Venus and Earth. This factor coupled with other marked chemical and isotopic differences between the four terrestrial planets points to the conclusion that each planet ?received the overwhelming majority of its mass from a narrow compositionally-distinct annulus of material around the Sun? (Drake & Righter 2002 Nature 416 39; Taylor & Scott 2001 in URL below).
This situation finds an explanation within the Modern Laplacian theory of Solar system origin (Prentice 2001 Earth Moon & Planets 87 11; URL: www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/mercury01). Here the planets condensed from a concentric family of circular gas rings shed by the proto-Solar cloud. The temperatures and mean orbit pressures of the gas rings scale with heliocentric distance r as T ~ 1/r0.9 and p ˜1/r4.0 respectively. At Mercury?s orbit T = 1640 K p= 0.16 bar and the three primary equilibrium condensates are Fe-Ni (67 %) gehlenite (26.1%) and spinel (4.1%). A simple 2-zone structural model of Mercury based on this mix has mean density 5.43 g/cc and axial moment-of-inertia coefficent C/MR2 = 0.325.
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