In 2004, NASA launched MESSENGER, the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. The mission ended in 2015, but the collected data is still being analyzed.
The first results are based on the images taken by the spacecraft, and confirm the existence of evidence indicating that the planet contains a layer of diamonds 18 kilometers thick.
Given the planet’s distance, it was previously thought that the graphite patches on Mercury’s surface were a sign of a carbon-rich magma ocean that could have left behind a different, diamond-like luster.
However, the mantle is not made of graphene, but rather of diamond, another allotrope of carbon, says the research published in the journal Nature Communications.
“We think the diamonds could have formed through two processes,” Namur explained. “First, the magma ocean crystallized, but this process probably contributed to the formation of a very thin layer of diamonds at the interface between the core and the mantle.” “Second, and more importantly, the crystallization of Mercury’s metallic core,” they say.
This means that when the planet formed about 4.5 billion years ago, the core of the planet was completely liquid and gradually crystallized over time, but before that, it contained carbon at the time it solidified, and the liquid could not dissolve more carbon and diamonds formed.
For this reason, the diamond layer began to form at a thickness of 1 kilometer and then continued to grow over time.
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