News Planetary Science

Salt may have carved out Mercury’s terrains, including glacierlike features

surface of Mercury

Mercury’s mottled surface (seen in this image from NASA’s Messenger probe) may have been shaped largely by ephemeral compounds called volatiles.

Carnegie Institution of Washington, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, NASA

By Shi En Kim

Mercury’s surface might not be quite so terra firma, at least on geologic timescales.

The closest planet to the sun is a world sculpted by volatiles — ephemeral compounds that can freeze, flow or float into space over time, analogous to water on Earth.