Sometimes it takes me a while but I consider it a challenge to fight the initial understanding and right the picture internally. Then you can relax and let it slip right back to an outie.
If Mercury was solid all the way through (and I take it it isn't) then could the whole planet be a permanent magnet? Would that explain the magnetic field?
One more thing. If it is heated through radioactivity, I suspect that it would be deep enough to still make it a pretty expensive proposal to mine it for energy resources. Wouldn't a solar array on the surface be cheaper?

Thanks

When I look at photos like the one attached to this story I find it difficult to see the craters as being concave. My brain turns them into convex mounds.

I don't normally have such a problem with other images. "innies" and "outies" are correctly identified in the main.

My solution if I can't view it correctly is to rotate the image. Any simple image editing app lets you do this. (Just Copy the image then Paste it into the image app).

I assume it is because my brain expects the lighting to come from the top of the image. Rotating it allows me to try out various lighting directions until I get the one my poor dumb brain can work on.

Thanks for listening….

The statement "Even though Mercury cooled down and solidified eons ago, it still has an magnetic field. “, is probably not correct. One would expect that such a small planet would have cooled but measurements indicate this is not the case.

I read the following in science news a while ago.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070505/fob5.asp

I also had the good fortune to sit next to Jean-Luc Margot of Cornell University at a conference dinner. It gave me the opportunity to express my amazement at the insight required to realize that the radar instruments could even detect the difference in wobble a solid core verses a liquid core would impose on Mercury. (It is easier to rotate a liquid can of soup compared to a frozen can of soup.).

I am not a fan of the sulfur explanation for the heat necessary to keep the core liquid. I believe further analysis will show intense radioactive activity due to radioactive elements in the core of Mercury. If this is the case, Mercury will be a source of energy, forcing another “Space Race�.

john kulick AKA Snowflake Universe

John says:
There are plenty of huge cliffs and scarps on the Moon too — but you have to look out for them. The Altai Scarp around Mare Nectaris (actually believed to be an outer impact ring produced as a result of the underlying rock rippling outwards from the impact) is just one example a huge scarp that can easily be seen (using binoculars or a telescope) during low sun angles, while the cliffs of the Apennines Mts, for example, around Mare Imbrium stretch for 600 km and are upto 5 km high. Plenty more of the above can be seen around most of the basins, so do have a look!
As for vollcanic faults/features etc., the Moon is also covered in these — some of which are arcuate (arc-like) to the basins that formed. Rilles, wrinkle ridges, colour in mare material are just a few of the features to look out for here (could give examples here but so many to mention) — all of which underlie the moon past violent volcanic history.
Cheers
John — http://www.moonposter.ie