Shocking new study: Mercury may contain 16 trillion tons of diamonds

Simulations from new research published at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in Houston, Texas last week suggest that Mercury's surface could be filled with diamonds.

Mercury has many craters on its surface.

It can transform into diamonds after collisions with meteorites, asteroids and comets. Mercury was heavily impacted by the Late Heavy Bombardment, the early Solar System 4.1-3.8 billion years ago when most of the craters on the Sun were known to researchers. Moon formed. However, Mercury has more craters than the Moon, leading to more diamond-producing collisions.

According to Kevin Cannon, an associate professor of Geology and Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines, Mercury began with a thin graphite crust that formed shortly after the planet cooled from a magma ocean. Asteroids and comets crash into this crust at speeds of tens of kilometers per second, creating pressures high enough to turn graphite into diamonds.

However, diamonds located relatively close to the surface of Mercury can be very different from the diamonds we cut into jewelry. They will look like fine-diamonds used as industrial abrasives, mixtures of graphite and other forms of carbon.

Mining in space is particularly difficult on Mercury due to orbital mechanical problems. However, BepiColumbo, the upcoming European Space Agency (ESA) mission, will map Mercury at various wavelengths when it reaches the planet's orbit on December 5, 2025. "In theory, the BepiColumbo mission could detect diamonds in surface materials. The spacecraft has multiple instruments that could support NASA's MESSENGER mission and be better able to probe for these minerals," Cannon said. said. The MESSENGER mission mapped Mercury from 2008 to 2015.

Two orbiters on the BepiColombo mission, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) of the ESA and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) of the Japan Space Agency, will jointly study the origin, evolution, texture, and geology. , composition, craters, atmosphere, and magnetosphere of Mercury. The mission will also examine sediment in craters on the planet's surface.