Science Opportunities offered by Mercury’s Ice-Bearing Polar Deposits
Whitepaper #069 submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032. Topics: habitability and water; Mercury and/or the Moon
by Ariel Deutsch, Nancy Chabot, Abhisek Maiti, Adrienn Luspay-Kuti, Akos Kereszturi, Alice Lucchetti, Anne Virkki, Anthony Colaprete, Audrey Vorburger, Ben Byron, Brant Jones, Brendan Anzures, Bryan Butler, Carl Schmidt, Carolyn Ernst, Cesare Grava, Christian Klimczak, Chuanfei Dong, Colin Hamill, Craig Hardgrove, David Blewett, David Lawrence, Dylan Hickson, Edgard Rivera-Valentin, Emily Costello, Erwan Mazarico, Gianrico Filacchione, Giovanni Bacon, Gregory Neumann, Hannah Susorney, Holly Brown, Indhu Varatharajan, Jack Wilson, Jacob Kloos, James Head, Jamey Szalay, Jordan Steckloff, Kelly Miller, Kevin Cannon, Kristen Luchsinger, Lior Rubanenko, Lizeth Magana, Margaret Landis, Maria Gritsevich, Mark Schneegurt, Martin Slade, Matthew Siegler, Maurizio Pajola, Menelaos Sarantos, Michael J. Poston, Mike Sori, Mona Delitsky, Noemi Pinilla-Alonso, Norbert Schorghofer, Parvathy Prem, Paul Byrne, Paul Hayne, Paul Lucey, Peter James, Petr Pokorny, Ronald J. Vervack, Jr., Rosemary Killen, Ross Potter, Sean Solomon, Shashwat Shukla, Sriram Bhiravarasu, Steven Hauck, Thomas Orlando, Timothy Stubbs, Valentin Bickel, Vincent Eke, and William Farrell
Published onMar 18, 2021
Science Opportunities offered by Mercury’s Ice-Bearing Polar Deposits
The presence of meters-thick polar deposits, with the coincident presence of water ice and organic-rich frozen volatiles, exposed directly on the surface of Mercury provides unique science opportunities that should be prioritized in the next decade of planetary exploration.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0)
