[meteorite-list] Mercury Meteorites - the short list

[Michael Murray]

Carl, List,
I make no guarantees that this information is correct but, as I  
understand it,  the public might have to wait until sometime around  
the middle of September of 2012 for the data they are collecting now  
from orbit.  And, I understand only a few of the pictures taken will  
be released between now and then.   Wonder why?  I'm starting to get a  
mushroom complex.  Kept in the dark and all that.  I ask you, can  
mushrooms survive on sulfides?

Mike in CO


On Aug 6, 2011, at 10:32 PM, <cdtucson at cox.net> <cdtucson at cox.net>  
wrote:

> Bernd,
>
> The very latest info on Mercuries composition does not even mention  
> Fe or FeO. It seems to me if it was there NASA would have already  
> mentioned it.
>
> http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/media/NewsConference20110616.html
>
> Ut says;
>
> Mercury's Surface Composition
>
> The X-ray Spectrometer (XRS) — one of two instruments on MESSENGER  
> designed to measure the abundances of many key elements on Mercury —  
> has made several important discoveries since the orbital mission  
> began. The magnesium/silicon, aluminum/silicon, and calcium/silicon  
> ratios averaged over large areas of the planet's surface show that,  
> unlike the surface of the Moon, Mercury's surface is not dominated  
> by feldspar-rich rocks.
>
> XRS observations have also revealed substantial amounts of sulfur at  
> Mercury's surface, lending support to prior suggestions from ground- 
> based telescopic spectral observations that sulfide minerals are  
> present. This discovery suggests that the original building blocks  
> from which Mercury was assembled may have been less oxidized than  
> those that formed the other terrestrial planets, and it has  
> potentially important implications for understanding the nature of  
> volcanism on Mercury.
>
> So, until the next report it seems all of these older theories might  
> be out the window.
>
> Carl
> --
>
>
>
>
>
> "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for  
> dinner. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote".
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---- "Bernd V. Pauli" <bernd.pauli at paulinet.de> wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I would like to remind you of Russ Kempton's article in "Meteorite!"
>>
>> Kempton R. (1996) Abee: More Questions Than Answers
>> (METEORITE! Magazine, Pallasite Press, November, 1996):
>>
>> "Curiously, the study of light reflected from Mercury's surface
>> indicates that it is iron-rich and oxygen-poor - characteristics
>> shared with E chondrites".*
>>
>> ... or with some of their achondritic counterparts: the aubrites.
>>
>> * In 1998, our late Richard Norton wrote in RFS:
>>
>> "Their low oxygen content suggests that they formed even closer
>> to the Sun than the H-chondrites, possibly inside Mercury's orbit."
>>
>> NORTON O.R. (1998) Rocks From Space, p. 190, E-Chondrites:
>>
>> But Mercury's mean density of about 5.4 g/cm^3 is a major problem
>> because enstatite chondrites have a density of about 3.4-3.7 g/cm^3.
>>
>> NWA 011 is also mentioned in the "short list" but here's another  
>> obstacle:
>>
>> ...its high FeO content, a circumstance which implies a parent body  
>> with
>> a small metallic iron core. Mercury is believed to have a large  
>> iron core.
>>
>> Niquist et al. (2003) suggest that NWA 011 is of asteroidal rather  
>> than
>> Mercurian origin.
>>
>> Love S.G. et al. (1995) think it highly likely that there are  
>> Mercurian
>> meteorites in our collections although they should be rare (probably
>> less than 1% of the amount of Martian meteorites in our  
>> collections)*.
>>
>> *Love S.G. et al. (1995) Recognizing mercurian
>> meteorites  (MAPS 30-3, 1995, pp. 269-278).
>>
>> Best wishes from rainy
>> Southern Germany,
>>
>> Bernd
>>
>>
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