Mercury is home to salt glaciers that might be hiding elements of life, scientists say
An image showing Chile's Atacama desert alongside a NASA illustration of Mercury
Our Milky Way is filled with surprises yet to be explored and studied. Scientists have now discovered that salt glaciers may exist on Mercury, the planet closest to Sun. The discovery indicates that Mercury may occasionally harbour conditions akin to the ones on Earth to support life forms.
The research was conducted by the scientists from the Arizona, United States-based Planetary Science Institute (PSI).
They said that such salt glaciers may create the right conditions for life, similar to some of the extreme environments on Earth where microbial life is found.
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Such life forms are found in Chile's Atacama Desert, research's lead author said.
"Specific salt compounds on Earth create habitable niches even in some of the harshest environments where they occur, such as the arid Atacama Desert in Chile," research lead author and PSI scientist Alexis Rodriguez said in an official statement. "This line of thinking leads us to ponder the possibility of subsurface areas on Mercury that might be more hospitable than its harsh surface."
What does it mean?
It means that the solar system could contain so-called "depth-dependent Goldilocks zones," regions on planets and where life might be able to survive not on the surface, but at specific depths that posses just the right conditions.
"This groundbreaking discovery of Mercurian glaciers extends our comprehension of the environmental parameters that could sustain life, adding a vital dimension to our exploration of astrobiology also relevant to the potential habitability of Mercury-like exoplanets," Rodriguez said.
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The research shows that Mercury is not devoid of chemical elements that were crucial for the emergence of life on Earth.
"These Mercurian glaciers, distinct from Earth's, originate from deeply buried VRLs exposed by asteroid impacts," research co-author and Planetary Science Institute (PSI) scientist Bryan Travis said. "Our models strongly affirm that salt flow likely produced these glaciers and that after their emplacement, they retained volatiles for over 1 billion years."
(With inputs from agencies)