ASU researcher builds case for dynamic Mercury

In a recent article in Wired Science, titled "This Just in: Mercury More Exciting Than Mars", Lisa Grossman highlights research by postdoctoral research associate Brett Denevi in the School of Earth and Space Exploration in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Along with Professor Mark Robinson, Denevi processed and analyzed the images and spectra from the MESSENGER spacecraft. Her results, as well as the results from other researchers working with MESSENGER, were recently published in Science and the conclusion was that Mercury isn't a small, dead, unchanging planet.

"Up until before Messenger's arrival, we weren't even sure that volcanism existed on Mercury," said Denevi. "Now we're seeing it's very widespread across the surface."

Volcanism wasn't the only hot topic. Grossman also discusses the planets magnetic tornadoes and an impact crater that would stretch from Washington D.C. to Boston.