Talk:Mercury (planet)

Confusing: Sun in sky?

Article has “at perihelion, when the solar tide is strongest, the Sun is nearly still in Mercury's sky.”

What does that mean? The sun is always in Mercury’s sky, at some point on the planet. Sounds like some words are missing from that sentence. Can someone fix it? 2603:8001:5940:CF00:94AD:A25C:BBA0:B669 (talk) 19:55, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

Oh, I see they are using the word still to mean “not moving”. 2603:8001:5940:CF00:94AD:A25C:BBA0:B669 (talk) 19:55, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

I changed it to 'stationary' so as to avoid the ambiguity. Praemonitus (talk) 14:32, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

Inconsistent radii in text

• Mercury is one of four terrestrial planets in the Solar System, and is a rocky body like Earth. It is the smallest planet in the Solar System, with an equatorial radius of 2,439.7 kilometres (1,516.0 mi).
• The radius of Mercury's core is estimated to be 2,020 ± 30 km (1,255 ± 19 mi)
• Surrounding the core is a 500–700 km (310–430 mi) mantle consisting of silicates.

Observe that 2439 < 2020 + 500.

To my understanding, this is because the mantle thickness comes from an outdated source. Here [1] is a source which states that the "core-mantle boundary is 420 km belw the suface" (insofar as subtraction needs a source), from which it can be deduced the mantle cannot possibly be 500 km thick.

I'm not sure how much of the rest of the text is outdated, in what sense, etc, so for now I'll just WP:BOLD change the mantle + crust thickness to 420 km, pending a better source. Fermiboson (talk) 17:51, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 17 June 2023

“many competing hypothesis” should be “many competing hypotheses”. 47.199.93.202 (talk) 03:38, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

 Done CodeTalker (talk) 03:45, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Incomplete edit summary

With regards this edit I just made, it should be "As with Venus, Earth and Mars, the source of the blackbody temperature no longer works, as seen on Talk:Venus so I've added an archive URL". Iggy (Swan) (Contribs) 16:03, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

Extreme places

I'm unclear what this is trying to communicate:

at the most extreme places: 0°N, 0°W, or 180°W

I understand the first is a reference to the north pole, but what are the longitudes? I would think that the extremes are the poles, subsolar point, and the night side. Praemonitus (talk) 22:45, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

Okay, I see now: it's redundant with the subsequent text in the same paragraph. Hence I removed it. Praemonitus (talk) 04:34, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

Fe-Si core

Currently the article claims the following:

Mercury appears to have a solid silicate crust and mantle overlying a solid, iron sulfide outer core layer, a deeper liquid core layer, and a solid inner core.

However, the current models indicate the core may instead be Fe-Si. For example:

• Knibbe, Jurriën Sebastiaan; van Westrenen, Wim (January 2018). "The thermal evolution of Mercury's Fe-Si core". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 482: 147–159. Bibcode:2018E&PSL.482..147K. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2017.11.006.
• Edmund, E.; Morard, G.; Baron, M. A.; Rivoldini, A.; Yokoo, S.; Boccato, S.; Hirose, K.; Pakhomova, A.; Antonangeli, D. (2022). "The Fe-FeSi phase diagram at Mercury's core conditions". Nature Communications. 13. Bibcode:2021AGUFMDI44A..07E. 387. Retrieved 2023-09-30.
• Vander Kaaden, Kathleen E.; McCubbin, Francis M.; Turner, Amber A.; Ross, D. Kent (May 2020). "Constraints on the Abundances of Carbon and Silicon in Mercury's Core From Experiments in the Fe-Si-C System". Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. 125 (5). Bibcode:2020JGRE..12506239V. doi:10.1029/2019JE006239. e06239.

These look at a core with a Fe-S-Si composition:

• Edgington, A. L.; Vočadlo, L.; Stixrude, L.; Wood, I. G.; Dobson, D. P.; Holmström, E. (December 15, 2019). "The top-down crystallisation of Mercury's core". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 528. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115838. 115838.
• Tao, Renbiao; Fei, Yingwei (May 2021). "High-pressure experimental constraints of partitioning behavior of Si and S at the Mercury's inner core boundary". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 562. Bibcode:2021E&PSL.56216849T. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2021.116849. 116849.

In that case perhaps it would make sense to say "the iron core is alloyed with uncertain abundances of silicon, sulfur, and carbon"? Praemonitus (talk) 20:16, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

I found a suitable source and updated the article accordingly. Praemonitus (talk) 14:52, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

Confusing: Planet or Element?

Some users look for the element, and find this page, thinking there would be a "Not to be confused with Mercury (Element)" or "the element" or "the element of the same name" Pinky the rancher slime (talk) 22:31, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

See WP:NOHATNOTE. The title of this page is not ambiguous. Readers searching for 'Mercury' are sent to the disambiguation page. Praemonitus (talk) 22:35, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

Oh, I didn't notice. I guess my ADHD didnt see it. Haha Pinky the rancher slime (talk) 00:20, 7 October 2023 (UTC)

Whoops I searched it on the web, now I get it. Pinky the rancher slime (talk) 00:23, 7 October 2023 (UTC)