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silylene old
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Interesting study:<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><b>Asteroid Crash on Mercury Splattered Earth, Study Says</b><br />Adrianne Appel<br />for National Geographic News<br /><br />April 4, 2006<br />An asteroid collided with the still-forming Mercury some 4.5 billion years ago, sending chunks of the planet hurtling through space, scientists say. <br /><br />What's more, the collision was big enough to send up to 16 million billion tons (16 quadrillion tons) of Mercury's rocky material tens of millions of miles to Earth, new computer simulations suggest. <br /><br />Some scientists believe that Mercury was much larger as it was forming than it is today. It had a lighter, rockier outer layer, similar to that of Earth's, which was blasted away in the great crash, they say. <br /><br />This would explain why Mercury is so different from its neighbors Venus and Earth. Mercury is very heavy for its size, due to an unusually large amount of iron, scientists believe. ......<br />At the end of this hours-long process, Mercury would have been left at 35 percent of its original size. <br /><br />"You've lost more [of Mercury] than what is left,'' Horner said. <br />.....<br /><br /><p><hr /></p></p></blockquote> read the rest here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/04/0404_060404_mercury_2.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>