Mercury's polar regions thus serve as a witness plate to the delivery to the inner solar system of water and organic compounds from the outer solar system — a process that, much earlier, may have led to prebiotic chemical synthesis and the origin of life on Earth.

Sean Solomon

Categorized in : Science

The MESSENGER spacecraft has survived the severe thermal and radiation hazards of the inner solar system, including strong heating by Mercury's dayside surface and direct impact by coronal mass ejections and other energetic solar events, even though we know that the probe's days are numbered, MESSENGER has been a reliable source of exciting new information, and its loss will sadden all of us who have followed its successes.