Japanese scientists have modeled the birth of Mercury in the early solar system. Experts considered the formation of the planet closest to the luminary as an unlikely event.
Astronomers conducted 110 launches of a model that assumes the formation of the terrestrial group of celestial bodies from the protoplanetary disk around the Sun. Within the framework of the N-body problem, more than a hundred planetary embryos and about six thousand planetesimals were used for this.
Most of the launches were able to reproduce the birth of Venus and Earth. Mercury and Mars were formed on only nine occasions.
As a rule, the planet closest to the luminary was formed at a distance of 0.27-0.34 astronomical units from the star, had a small eccentricity (describing the elongation of the orbit) and was lighter than the Earth by about five times. The formation of the planet was mainly spent on the matter of embryos, the birth of a celestial body took ten million years.
Mercury is about 20 times lighter and smaller than Earth. Its average density is about the same as that of the Blue Planet. The year on Mercury lasts about 88 days. Mercury differs from other planets in the solar system by its large metal core - it accounts for 85 percent of the radius of this celestial body. For comparison, the core of the Earth accounts for only half of its radius. Unlike Venus and Mars, Mercury, like Earth, has its own magnetosphere.
