Today, many Maya sites are polluted with toxic levels of mercury. The contamination likely originated from cinnabar paints and art.
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You searched for: Mercury
Perhaps we should be searching for “other Mercurys” rather than “other Earths.”
No planet enters retrograde more frequently than Mercury, which does so 3-4 times each year. Here’s the scientific explanation for why.
Due to a crust of carbon, the absence of oxygen, and constant bombardment from meteorites, the planet Mercury may be littered with diamonds.
Einstein's "happiest thought" led to General Relativity's formulation. Would a different profound insight have led us forever astray?
They're the most common type of exoplanet known today, and many astronomers have called them "super-habitable." None of that is true.
Leading a scientific revolution is easy: you just have to succeed where the current theory fails while equaling its successes. Good luck!
Even at its faintest, Venus always outshines every other star and planet that's visible from Earth, and then some!
Despite being the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury "only" reaches 800 °F at its hottest. Venus is always hotter, even at night.
Mercury, Venus, and Mars are all uni-plate planets, and may always have been. Here's what's known about why Earth, uniquely, has plate tectonics.
Do you think you know the Solar System? Here's a fact about each planet that might surprise you when you see it!
Based on the atoms that they're made out of, the innermost planet should always be the densest. Here's why Earth beats Mercury, hands down.
Even the most brilliant mind in history couldn't have achieved all he did without significant help from the minds of others.
Mars, the red planet, was a world we knew almost nothing about until our first spacecraft visited it. In just ~50 years, how far we've come!
In our Solar System, even the two brightest planets frequently align in our skies. But only rarely is it spectacularly visible from Earth.
As we look to larger cosmic scales, we get a broader view of the expansive cosmic forest, eventually revealing the grandest views of all.
The boiling new world, which zips around its star at ultraclose range, is among the lightest exoplanets found to date.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" is often taken to mean that your conceptions outweigh what's real. That's not what he said.
Even without the greatest individual scientist of all, every one of his great scientific advances would still have occurred. Eventually.
Scientists track down a puzzling early burst of oxygen on Earth.
And why, even at its faintest, it always outshines every other star and planet. If you’ve been looking to the west after sunset recently, you may have noticed that there’s one […]
In the night sky for March of 2022, only stars and the Moon, not planets, will greet you. The real show, however, arrives just before dawn.
It's not about fairness. It's about using every possible advantage.
Many impact craters on Earth have been erased thanks to wind, water, and plate tectonics. But scientists have clever ways to find them.
Bend it. Stretch it. Use it to conduct electricity.
JWST just found its first transiting exoplanet, and it's 99% the size of Earth. But with no atmosphere seen, perhaps air is truly rare.
But make sure you bring the fossegrim the proper offering—or else.
Despite all that we've learned about the Universe, there remain unanswered, and possibly unanswerable, questions. Could "God" be the answer?