In comparison with the opposite terrestrial planets, Mercury has all the time been a little bit of a mysterious one. It’s inside construction could be very totally different from its planetary siblings with its core accounting for 70% of its total mass and an unusually skinny mantle composed of silicates. One principle suggests a head-on collision between a bigger proto-Mercury and a smaller object whereas one other suggests Mercury sideswiped an Earth-mass object. It could be one thing utterly totally different and a brand new paper suggests {that a} grazing collision between two equally sized our bodies led to the formation of the planet we see immediately.
