Washington – The cause as to why planet Mercury reflects very little sunlight has remained a mystery for the longest time possible. Scientists have previously wanted to hold culprit the iron particles found on the surface. However, this may not have been possible because the planet’s surface is pretty low in nanophase iron hence it can’t be the cause of the dim appearance.
Earlier on, Scientists had this believe that there must be some sort of a darkening agent that contributed to Mercury’s low reflectance. Even as they held their believe on this, the fact that Mercury gets dumped on by a lot of material that has been derived from comets had not been out into consideration. This is according to Megan Bruck from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Never the less, the same Scientists now say they have since discovered the reason why the planet’s surface is dark and barely reflective.It is not as a result of the planet’s geologic make up but it is believed that a steady dusting of carbon from passing comets could have slowly been painting Mercury black over billions of years.
The comet dust is more of an invisible paint and accumulates 25 percent carbon. Comets being the frozen bodies that they are tend to break – up as they approach the sun which gives it higher chances of exposure of Mercury to comet dust.
The scientists according to Peter Schultz a co-author of the study used the Ames Vertical Gun Range in running their experiments and in an effort to prove their theory of how this scattering material was darkening the surface of Mercury.
This facility is used for small scale simulations with an attachment of high speed celestial body impacts. In scenarios asteroid impacts on planets and those that happen to entry vehicles, the gun comes in handy.
The process is said to have shown reduction reflectivity by five percent the same percentage that represents the darkest areas of mercury.