Studying this replica has revealed fascinating insights into the role of sulfur in creating Mercury\u2019s unique chemical environment, which the team describes in a recent study published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis process of cooking a rock can show us what happened chemically inside of Mercury,\u201d Yishen Zhang, the study\u2019s lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at Rice, said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tiny and elusive <\/p>\n As the smallest planet in the solar system, Mercury\u2019s size and surface resemble Earth\u2019s Moon, \u201cscarred by many impact craters resulting from collisions with meteoroids and comets,\u201d according to NASA<\/a>. Given Mercury\u2019s proximity to the Sun\u2014and its lack of an atmosphere to dampen radiation\u2014temperatures on the planet can reach extreme levels, ranging from 800 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius) to -290 degrees Fahrenheit (-180 degrees Celsius).<\/p>\n This also means Mercury\u2019s magnetosphere is highly prone to solar weather. Overall, both Mercury\u2019s innate characteristics and location in the solar system make it a tricky planet to investigate. To put this into perspective, only three spacecraft<\/a> to date have been sent into space specifically to study Mercury, compared to over 40 for Venus<\/a> and hundreds for Mars<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe couldn\u2019t study [Mercury\u2019s] magmatic evolution using assumptions built off our understanding of Earth, and mission data are difficult to interpret,\u201d explained Rajdeep Dasgupta, the study\u2019s senior author and an Earth scientist at Rice. \u201cWe had to find ways to bring the planet closer to our lab\u2014specifically, through the meteorite Indarch.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mercury rock recipe <\/p>\n For the study, the researchers first dissected the chemical composition of Indarch, paying close attention to how the rocky material would behave under the temperature and pressure conditions of Mercury\u2019s surface. Then, they mixed the chemical ingredients in a small glass vial and \u201ccooked\u201d the glass in a high-pressure, high-temperature chamber.<\/p>\n \u201cBy using the temperature, pressure, and chemical constraints derived from spacecraft observations and models, we recreate Mercury-like conditions to understand how magmas form and evolve there\u2014even without direct samples from the planet,\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n A sulfur substitute <\/p>\n The team\u2019s cooking experiment demonstrated the particular role of sulfur in Mercury\u2019s odd chemical composition. On iron-rich planets like Mars and Earth, sulfur likes to bind itself to iron, which Mercury\u2019s surface notably lacks. This means that sulfur will find \u201cnew binding partners,\u201d for instance, \u201cmajor rock-forming elements like magnesium and calcium,\u201d according to an article by the university<\/a>.<\/p>\n These rock-forming elements on Earth typically link to oxygen, and the union creates stable silicate structures we see on our planet. But when sulfur replaces that role on Mercury, similar structures become much weaker and start melting at lower temperatures, \u201cthereby [prolonging] magmatic activity and melt generation,\u201d according to the paper.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a fascinating glimpse of how Mercury may have evolved as a planet to its unique current-day surface chemistry,\u201d Dasgupta said. The new work demonstrates a neat approach to analyze planets \u201cbased on their own unique chemistry and magmatic processes under vastly different conditions,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When studying Venus and Mars, Earth\u2019s neighbors in the inner solar system, scientists often rely on what we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,10193,8456,19729,66,306],"class_list":{"0":"post-604608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-chemistry","11":"tag-mercury","12":"tag-planetary-science","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Mercury](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mercury-rock-replica-glass-vial.jpg\")
The chemical mixture cooked to create Mercury rocks. Credit: Jared Jones\/Rice University <\/p>\n