The Early Thermal Evolution of Mercury

We report the preliminary results of the numerical simulations of the early thermal evolution and planetary scale differentiation of Mercury. These simulations have been performed for the first time to understand the release and transfer of thermal energy on account of radioactive heating. We initiate the numerical simulations by forming Mercury by accretion of planetesimals in the early solar system. We further numerically differentiate Mercury from an initially homogeneous body into a configuration with a denser iron core at the centre surrounded by a lighter rocky mantle. We demonstrate that the heat generated from the radioactive decay of 26Al present in Mercury results in large scale melting of Mercury. We used the finite difference approximation to solve the heat conduction partial differential equation. Subsequent to melting, the segregation of two immiscible fluids, namely, the dense iron melt and the lighter silicate melt is numerically executed to understand the rate of formation of the iron-core and silicate(rocky)–mantle in Mercury. The Stoke's law is used to estimate the descend velocity of the dense metallic melt towards the center of Mercury.