Mercury's volcanic past revealed (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

A fly-by by a Nasa unmanned space probe has revealed evidence of "widespread" volcanism on the planet Mercury.

The US Mercury Messenger spacecraft made a close pass of the first planet from the Sun on 14 January.

Evidence from the Mariner 10 probe launched in the 1970s had provided only tenuous evidence for volcanic activity.

In addition, only 45% of Mercury's surface had previously been mapped; Messenger has already covered a further 30% of the planet.

"This fly-by allowed us to see a part of the planet never before viewed by spacecraft, and our little craft has returned a gold mine of exciting data," said Dr Sean Solomon, Messenger's chief scientist.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7218575.stm

Too bad there really isn't a planet Vulcan ...

It would probably be soft as a Brie inside, and we could *really* study vulcanism in detail.