NASA Spacecraft Finds New Evidence for Water Ice on Mercury

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Source:  NASA RELEASE 12-411
 Excerpt: NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft… has provided compelling support for the long-held hypothesis the planet harbors abundant water ice … within its permanently shadowed polar craters. …"The new data indicate the water ice in Mercury's polar regions, if spread over an area the size of Washington, D.C., would be more than 2 miles thick," said David Lawrence, a MESSENGER participating scientist …. Given its proximity to the sun, Mercury would seem to be an unlikely place to find ice. However, the tilt of Mercury's rotational axis is less than 1 degree, and as a result, there are pockets at the planet's poles that never see sunlight. …MESSENGER's neutron spectrometer provides a measure of average hydrogen concentrations within Mercury's radar-bright regions. Water ice concentrations are derived from the hydrogen measurements….

 http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/nov/HQ_12-411_Mercury_Ice.html

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