Potential Signs of Life on Mercury

   (not actual color/ color base map imaging*)

Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system, and
it's the closest planet to the sun.
Surface temperatures can reach 800 degrees 
across equatorial regions during the day, and 
-280 degrees at night.

Truly, it is a world of extremes!

I was both surprised and thrilled when I learned scientists
have discovered water ice at its poles - deep in craters that
never see the light of day.

As we all well know, where there is water, there might
be life.  
They also might have evidence of chemical, building blocks
of life under its rocky terrain.  
And most of us had always thought that Mercury was an
over baked rock.

We found organics on icy Pluto, and maybe that will be the case
for Mercury as well - stay tuned!

Life seems to find a way even in the most extreme conditions,
blazing hot or freezing cold.  Or both...

Messenger - NASA's robotic spacecraft;  orbited Mercury 2011 - 2015, studying Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field.
_____

*Colorful Photo Credit:
This colorful view of Mercury was produced by using images from the color base map imaging campaign during MESSENGER’s primary mission. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Mercury's North Pole/ Crater - Photo Credit
Wikimedia Commons / NASA jpg

Messenger - Photo Credit

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