The Influence of Space Environment on the Evolution of Mercury
Stefano Orsini, Valeria Mangano, Alessandro Mura, Diego Turrini,, Stefano Massetti, Anna Milillo, Christina Plainaki

TL;DR
This paper estimates how Mercury's extreme space environment, especially solar wind and radiation, has contributed to surface material loss over billions of years, influencing its geological evolution.
Contribution
It provides a rough estimation of Mercury's surface material loss rate over time, highlighting the combined effects of ion sputtering, photon stimulated desorption, and diffusion in early planetary erosion.
Findings
Potential surface layer loss of up to 20 meters.
Significant sodium depletion due to erosion processes.
Early extreme conditions enhanced material removal.
Abstract
Mercury, due to its close location to the Sun, is surrounded by an environment whose conditions may be considered as "extreme" in the entire Solar System. Both solar wind and radiation are stronger with respect to other Solar System bodies, so that their interactions with the planet cause high emission of material from its surface. Moreover, the meteoritic precipitation plays a significant role in surface emission processes. This emitted material is partially lost in space. Although under the present conditions the surface particles loss rate does not seem to be able to produce significant erosion of the planetary mass and volume, the long-term effects over billions of years should be carefully considered to properly understand the evolution of the planet. In the early stages, under even more extreme conditions, some of these processes were much more effective in removing material from…
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Taxonomy
TopicsPlanetary Science and Exploration · Astro and Planetary Science · Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
