Mercury

There are fewer boulders lying around on Mercury than on Moon Space

There are fewer boulders lying around on Mercury than on Moon

Mercury can very well be imagined as an extreme version of the Earth's moon. The rocky planet orbits so close to the sun that it is exposed to much stronger temperature fluctuations than the moon. Water, like on the Moon, exists only in the few areas that are never exposed to sunlight. Nevertheless, as NASA's Messenger probe photos have shown, there are a few characteristic differences at the surface. For example, there are far fewer boulders lying around on Mercury. Why is that? An international group of planetary scientists has now analyzed this for the first time and described…