04-July-2008, 01:59 AM
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Order of Kilopi
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 13,458
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fearless
[...] where's it come from if its sputtered of the surface via the solar wind?
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Planetary Society: Planetary News: MESSENGER Scientists 'Astonished' to Find Water in Mercury's Thin Atmosphere
Quote:
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Zurburchen listed three possibilities, which are not mutually exclusive. Firstly, it has long been theorized (but not yet proved) from Earth-based radar observations that there may be reservoirs of water ice in small areas of Mercury's poles where local topography creates permanently shadowed spots in crater walls that might trap water over the age of the solar system. Second, the water could come from comets. Third, the process of chemical sputtering could create water where none existed before from the ingredients of solar wind and Mercury rock, as Zurburchen explains.
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Or Zurburchen is wrong and the signal has yet another origin.
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