Mercury's Magnetic Field and Density Support Its Youth and the Creation Model
NASA image (above)
by Owen Borville
March 6, 2019
Astronomy
Mercury is one of the smallest planets in our solar system, being smaller than all planets except Pluto and a moon of Jupiter and Saturn. A NASA space probe has detected a magnetic field for Mercury, the planet orbiting the closest to the sun. The measurements were received in April 1974 from the Mariner 10 spacecraft, which detected a magnetic field 1.1 percent that of Earth's magnetic field (1). The detection of a magnetic field for Mercury was surprising for mainstream scientists, who believed that Mercury should not have a detectable magnetic field because its proposed 4.5 billion year old age could not sustain the field for so long. Mercury has a rocky and cratered surface similar to the Earth's moon and has the highest density of all planets outside Earth at 5.4 g/cm3. Scientists also believe that Mercury has an iron-rich core that extends to 75 percent of its diameter. Having a similar density to Earth with a much smaller volume, scientists propose an iron-rich core for Mercury. However, evolutionists have trouble explaining Mercury's high density (5.4 g/cubic centimeter) with a uniformitarian doctrine or a slow and gradual accretion from solar nebula dust and gas over billions of years. To explain the high density, evolutionists propose a planet collided with Mercury and supplied the iron-rich core that it currently has (2). However, the fact that evolutionists use a catastrophic impact model for Mercury's formation instead of their traditional accretionary model over billions of years for planet formation is surprising and gives strong evidence for the youth of the planet and the solar system. Mercury's high density is difficult for evolutionists to explain and catastrophic explanations must be used instead, explanations that fit within the creationist model. Because of the small size of Mercury, evolutionists also have trouble explaining how Mercury could have generated a magnetic field. The mainstream evolutionist model for planet generation of a magnetic field includes a molten liquid and fluid iron core to produce a "dynamo" effect that would continually generate a magnetic field over billions of years. The small size of Mercury would prohibit it from becoming warm enough to have a molten iron core. However, Mercury has a magnetic field, as detected by the NASA satellite. In addition, the magnetic field is rapidly declining in strength, as spacecraft measurements have detected since the 1970's (3). More recent measurements of Mercury's magnetic field have been obtained with the NASA space probe Messenger between 2011 and 2015, when the probe began orbiting the planet. An article published by Science also confirmed the reduced strength of Mercury's magnetic field since the Mariner 10 measurements. With this declining magnetic field, the youth of Mercury is apparent and in agreement with the creationist model.
(1) Jerry Coffey (2009-07-24). "Mercury Magnetic Field". Universe Today. Retrieved 2011-07-16.
(2) Mercury-the tiny planet that causes big problems for evolution. Creation 26(4):36-39-September 2004.
(3) Humphreys, D.R., Mercury’s magnetic field is young! Journal of Creation 22(3):8–9, 2008.
(4) Anderson, B. J. et al. 2011. The Global Magnetic Field of Mercury from MESSENGER Orbital Observations. Science. 333 (6051): 1859-1862.
NASA image (above)
by Owen Borville
March 6, 2019
Astronomy
Mercury is one of the smallest planets in our solar system, being smaller than all planets except Pluto and a moon of Jupiter and Saturn. A NASA space probe has detected a magnetic field for Mercury, the planet orbiting the closest to the sun. The measurements were received in April 1974 from the Mariner 10 spacecraft, which detected a magnetic field 1.1 percent that of Earth's magnetic field (1). The detection of a magnetic field for Mercury was surprising for mainstream scientists, who believed that Mercury should not have a detectable magnetic field because its proposed 4.5 billion year old age could not sustain the field for so long. Mercury has a rocky and cratered surface similar to the Earth's moon and has the highest density of all planets outside Earth at 5.4 g/cm3. Scientists also believe that Mercury has an iron-rich core that extends to 75 percent of its diameter. Having a similar density to Earth with a much smaller volume, scientists propose an iron-rich core for Mercury. However, evolutionists have trouble explaining Mercury's high density (5.4 g/cubic centimeter) with a uniformitarian doctrine or a slow and gradual accretion from solar nebula dust and gas over billions of years. To explain the high density, evolutionists propose a planet collided with Mercury and supplied the iron-rich core that it currently has (2). However, the fact that evolutionists use a catastrophic impact model for Mercury's formation instead of their traditional accretionary model over billions of years for planet formation is surprising and gives strong evidence for the youth of the planet and the solar system. Mercury's high density is difficult for evolutionists to explain and catastrophic explanations must be used instead, explanations that fit within the creationist model. Because of the small size of Mercury, evolutionists also have trouble explaining how Mercury could have generated a magnetic field. The mainstream evolutionist model for planet generation of a magnetic field includes a molten liquid and fluid iron core to produce a "dynamo" effect that would continually generate a magnetic field over billions of years. The small size of Mercury would prohibit it from becoming warm enough to have a molten iron core. However, Mercury has a magnetic field, as detected by the NASA satellite. In addition, the magnetic field is rapidly declining in strength, as spacecraft measurements have detected since the 1970's (3). More recent measurements of Mercury's magnetic field have been obtained with the NASA space probe Messenger between 2011 and 2015, when the probe began orbiting the planet. An article published by Science also confirmed the reduced strength of Mercury's magnetic field since the Mariner 10 measurements. With this declining magnetic field, the youth of Mercury is apparent and in agreement with the creationist model.
(1) Jerry Coffey (2009-07-24). "Mercury Magnetic Field". Universe Today. Retrieved 2011-07-16.
(2) Mercury-the tiny planet that causes big problems for evolution. Creation 26(4):36-39-September 2004.
(3) Humphreys, D.R., Mercury’s magnetic field is young! Journal of Creation 22(3):8–9, 2008.
(4) Anderson, B. J. et al. 2011. The Global Magnetic Field of Mercury from MESSENGER Orbital Observations. Science. 333 (6051): 1859-1862.
