Where did Mercury get its water ice? Maybe from a single slow asteroid impact
Mercury may have gotten much of its polar ice within a single Mercurian day following a massive asteroid impact, a new study suggests.
New research proposes that Mercury's significant polar ice deposits could have originated from a single, large asteroid impact. This event, occurring within a single Mercurian day, would have delivered a substantial amount of water ice to the planet. The study suggests that the impact's energy could have created conditions suitable for retaining this ice in Mercury's permanently shadowed craters.
This theory offers a novel explanation for the presence of water on a planet as hot and close to the sun as Mercury, challenging previous assumptions about its origins.
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