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One of the planets in the solar system is aging and shrinking
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
Experts representing the famous space agency NASA have discovered that one of the planets in the solar system is decreasing in size, and cracks and folds are appearing on its surface.
Such a planet is Mercury – the closest to the sun, it revolves around it in 88 Earth days.
Astronomers have made complex calculations that have allowed them to establish that in some four billion years the planet's diameter will decrease by approximately 7 kilometers. There is an explanation for this phenomenon: Mercury is simply getting older.
The daily period on the planet Mercury is equal to 96 Earth hours. Scientists know relatively little about it, because due to its extreme proximity to the Sun, it is very difficult to observe this object. At the same time, an increased level of radiation is always noted on the surface of Mercury, and massive coronal flares are often recorded.
Could the planet disappear completely? Space explorers are currently working on this.
One of the signs of a planet's aging is the absence of an atmosphere around it. The gradual loss of atmosphere is a dissipation process, the divergence of gases into outer space. Mercury has an atmosphere, but it is too thin - so thin that it essentially does not exist: its volume is approximately 10 15 less than the dense atmospheric layers that Earth has.
There are several known versions of the reasons for the lack of an atmosphere on Mercury. Firstly, this planet has a low density, so it cannot hold a significant amount of atmosphere around itself. Secondly, Mercury is located very close to the sun, which leads to solar winds "sweeping away" most of the atmosphere. Thirdly, this is the already mentioned aging of the planet.
Some scientists also explain the small amount and rarefaction of the atmosphere by the fact that Mercury registers quite extreme temperature changes. The lowest temperature indicator reaches -180°C on the shadow side of the planet, and the highest indicator is approximately +430°C, respectively, on the sunny side.
Vista News reports that many scientists predict the gradual demise of Mercury.
Interestingly, last year, astronomy specialists from the same American agency NASA deciphered photographs from the destroyed Messenger probe. Thanks to the information they received, researchers concluded that there are clear signs of tectonic processes on the surface of Mercury, which, moreover, arose relatively recently.
Scientists sent the Messenger probe on a space journey back in 1975. Four decades later, the device was destroyed after hitting the surface of the planet Mercury. However, specialists managed to extract and decipher the information that the spacecraft managed to capture.
At the moment, NASA astronomers are doing everything necessary to determine what processes are taking place on the planet's surface and what awaits Mercury in the future.
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