[meteorite-list] AD - 86 Auctions - A Case for Mercury? or not?

From: David Weir <dgweir_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Dec 20 16:05:47 2005
Message-ID: <43A87216.7030106_at_earthlink.net>

Hi Mike and List,

The presumed slow cooling of a large parent body such as Mercury was
indeed one of the constraints that I had also seen as a problem to an
angrite/Mercury connection, given the ancient formation age of the
angrites. I asked this question of Dr. Irving and he replied to me with
a workable solution to this problem. I hope he won't mind if I include
the relevant passage here rather than try to put it in my words.

Dr. Irving wrote:

My way out of the early rapid cooling of a substantial body is to
consider the immense core of Mercury that would permit very efficient
conductive heat transfer that even a silicate mantle could transmit (by
convection or even conduction) and radiate into space. Even if Mercury
is not the angrite parent body, this same problem doesn't go away, as
long as we are correct in our conclusion that the APB is/was large.

Regards,
David
Received on Tue 20 Dec 2005 04:05:26 PM PST