Water found on Mercury?

[msbae]

Hard to believe but, true...

Mercury, the smallest planet, bakes in the heat of the Sun, but it has water in some form. It has volcanoes. It appears to have an active magnetic field generated by a molten iron core. And it has shrunk more than scientists thought.

Those are some of the findings gleaned from the flyby of NASA's Messenger spacecraft in January, the first close-up look since Mariner 10 flew by three times in the 1970s.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/08/healthscience/08merc.php

This has a few interesting possibilities...

 

[darkshadow0001]

If this is true, then cool. But why does a planet have to have liquid water in order to sustain life? If alien life does exist, there is a good distinct possibility that they do not need water like us to live.

 

[Timo]

It would be extremely difficult for complex (say, self-replicating) chemistry to exist without a benign solvent. And such solvents are actually pretty hard to come by. In addition to water, what could we have? Ammonia, perhaps. Or something like methane or chloroform in suitable physical conditions, although probably not for carbon-based life.

Also, liquid water is a great environment for life to exist in, given how it stays liquid over a wide temperature and pressure range, and how the solid chunks created in low temperatures become less dense than the liquid and thus float up to form a protective cover (a trait unique to water). Such things may not be necessary for life, familiar or alien, but they are an excellent starting point in looking for locations that could harbor detectable life.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[scotthm]

Water found on Mercury?

This is the second time this week I've heard this rumor.

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[darkshadow0001]

It would be extremely difficult for complex (say, self-replicating) chemistry to exist without a benign solvent. And such solvents are actually pretty hard to come by. In addition to water, what could we have? Ammonia, perhaps. Or something like methane or chloroform in suitable physical conditions, although probably not for carbon-based life.

Also, liquid water is a great environment for life to exist in, given how it stays liquid over a wide temperature and pressure range, and how the solid chunks created in low temperatures become less dense than the liquid and thus float up to form a protective cover (a trait unique to water). Such things may not be necessary for life, familiar or alien, but they are an excellent starting point in looking for locations that could harbor detectable life.

Timo Saloniemi

Our form of life, yes. But has it ever occured to anyone that on other worlds life maybe completely different then us? Hasn't Star Trek or science fiction in general taught us this over the years?

 

[anti-matter]

Merc is way too close to the sun to have water...totally bogus report imo.

 

[Paxil]

Until we have examples of life based on something other than water, it is entirely logical to assume that life requires water. BTW, Star Trek is just a TV show.

 

[Lindley]

Our form of life, yes. But has it ever occured to anyone that on other worlds life maybe completely different then us? Hasn't Star Trek or science fiction in general taught us this over the years?

We don't have time for an exhaustive search, so we need a heuristic. AI 101. Water seems a likely candidate. Perhaps there's a better one, but for now this will do.

 

[Paxil]

Merc is way too close to the sun to have water...totally bogus report imo.

It is entirely possible, and a reasonable assumption. Not just water, but ice:

From Wikipedia

surface temperatures on Mercury range from about 90 to 700 K (-183 ºC to 427 ºC),[9] with the subsolar point being the hottest and the bottoms of craters near the poles being the coldest. Despite the generally extremely high temperature of its surface, observations strongly suggest that ice exists on Mercury. The floors of some deep craters near the poles are never exposed to direct sunlight, and temperatures there remain far lower than the global average. Water ice strongly reflects radar, and observations by the 70m Goldstone telescope and the VLA in the early 1990s revealed that there are patches of very high radar reflection near the poles.[43] While ice is not the only possible cause of these reflective regions, astronomers believe it is the most likely

 

[darkshadow0001]

Until we have examples of life based on something other than water, it is entirely logical to assume that life requires water. BTW, Star Trek is just a TV show.

I understand that. I just used that as an example... but I've always come to conclude that if there is alien life out there, who's to say they need water like us, is all I'm trying to say. I'm not trying to discredit anyone, but merely trying to state a possible fact.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.

 

[Trekker4747]

Until we have examples of life based on something other than water, it is entirely logical to assume that life requires water. BTW, Star Trek is just a TV show.

I understand that. I just used that as an example... but I've always come to conclude that if there is alien life out there, who's to say they need water like us, is all I'm trying to say. I'm not trying to discredit anyone, but merely trying to state a possible fact.

It's possible that life can (and does) exsist in substances other than water. But we know that water *can* and does support life in extreme circumstances - as it occurs on Earth. So on other planets it's a good thing to a)look for and b)to start looking for life itself.

We've got to start somewhere and water is just as good as anything. Could life exsist in the liquid methan oceans of Titan? Sure it could. But we've no evidence of such a thing so it'd be a "waste" to try looking there when other bodies harbor water -something we know has a much greater chance of harboring life.

Baby steps, Bob. Baby steps.

 

[msbae]

But why does a planet have to have liquid water in order to sustain life?

I would guess it's because Scientists are looking for forms of life that might be familiar to them.

 

[K'riq Sa]

.... ANY UNIVERSE IS A GOOD UNIVERSE ...............

You have to take those Mercury Insurance Ads with a grain of salt.

 

[Tharsis]

Water certainly does exist on Mercury as it does on several other planets and moons previously thought to not have water. Water exists on the planet in two forms. First, it occurs as water ice present within shaded impact craters near the north and south poles of the planet. This is similar to water ice found near the south pole of our moon. The likely source of this water is from cometary impacts during the late heavy bombardment, or possibly something more recent. Water was also recently detected by the Messenger spacecraft in the extremely thin atmosphere that exists over Mercury. The messenger scientists state that energetic solar particles bombard the surface of the planet, effectively dislodging atoms from the bedrock. As silicate rocks contain abundant oxygen it is no suprise that ionized hydrogen from the solar wind may combine with the oxygen in small amounts to form water. Other atoms like Si, Mg, K, Ca, and Na were also found in the atmosphere which are all derived from the rocks on the surface. So, its nothing that could sustain life or cause precipitation, but its certainly interesting.