科普知识学英语 水星上曾有一片岩浆海.docVIP

By analyzing Mercurys rocky surface, scientists have been able to partially reconstruct the planets history over billions of years. Now, drawing upon the chemical composition of rock features on the planets surface, scientists at MIT have proposed that Mercury may have harbored a large, roiling ocean of magma very early in its history, shortly after its formation about 4.5 billion years ago. The scientists analyzed data gathered by MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging), a NASA probe that has orbited the planet since March 2011. Later that year, a group of scientists analyzed X-ray fluorescence data from the probe, and identified two distinct compositions of rocks on the planets surface. The discovery unearthed a planetary puzzle: What geological processes could have given rise to such distinct surface compositions? ? To answer that question, the MIT team used the compositional data to recreate the two rock types in the lab, and subjected each synthetic rock to high temperatures and pressures to simulate various geological processes. From their experiments, the scientists came up with only one phenomenon to explain the two compositions: a vast magma ocean that created two different layers of crystals, solidified, then eventually remelted into magma that then erupted onto Mercurys surface. ? The thing thats really amazing on Mercury is, this didnt happen yesterday, says Timothy Grove, a professor of geology at MIT. The crust is probably more than 4 billion years old, so this magma ocean is a really ancient feature. ? Grove, along with postdoc Bernard Charlier and Maria Zuber, the E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and Planetary Science and now MITs vice president for research, published the results in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 通过分析水星表面的岩石，科学家们已经能够部分重建地球的历史上数十亿年。现在，借鉴功能，对地球表面岩石的化学成分，在麻省理工学院的科学家们提出，水星可能窝藏大，滚滚的岩浆海洋，在它的历史非常早，大约4.5亿年前形成后不久。科学家信使（水星表面，空间环境，地球化学和测距），2011年3月以来，围绕行星NASA探测器所收集的数据进行了分析。那年晚些时候，一