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  • Gravity Field and Internal ...
    Smith, David E.; Zuber, Maria T.; Phillips, Roger J.; Solomon, Sean C.; Hauck, Steven A.; Lemoine, Frank G.; Mazarico, Erwan; Neumann, Gregory A.; Peale, Stanton J.; Margot, Jean-Luc; Johnson, Catherine L.; Torrence, Mark H.; Perry, Mark E.; Rowlands, David D.; Goossens, Sander; Head, James W.; Taylor, Anthony H.

    Science, 04/2012, Volume: 336, Issue: 6078
    Journal Article

    Radio tracking of the MESSENGER spacecraft has provided a model of Mercury's gravity field. In the northern hemisphere, several large gravity anomalies, including candidate mass concentrations (mascons), exceed 100 mi Hi-Galileos (mgal). Mercury's northern hemisphere crust is thicker at low latitudes and thinner in the polar region and shows evidence for thinning beneath some impact basins. The low-degree gravity field, combined with planetary spin parameters, yields the moment of inertia CIMR² = 0.353 ± 0.017, where M and R are Mercury's mass and radius, and a ratio of the moment of inertia of Mercury's solid outer shell to that of the planet of CJC = 0.452 ± 0.035. A model for Mercury's radial density distribution consistent with these results includes a solid silicate crust and mantle overlying a solid iron-sulfide layer and an iron-rich liquid outer core and perhaps a solid inner core.