Detection of lithium in the exosphere of Mercury

Daniel Schmid (), Helmut Lammer, Alexey A. Berezhnoy, Fabian Weichbold, Manuel Scherf, Ali Varsani, Martin Volwerk, Cyril Simon-Wedlund, Wolfgang Baumjohann, Rumi Nakamura, Go Murakami and Ferdinand Plaschke
Additional contact information
Daniel Schmid: Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
Helmut Lammer: Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
Alexey A. Berezhnoy: Moscow State University
Fabian Weichbold: Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
Manuel Scherf: Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
Ali Varsani: Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
Martin Volwerk: Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
Cyril Simon-Wedlund: Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
Wolfgang Baumjohann: Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
Rumi Nakamura: Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
Go Murakami: Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS)
Ferdinand Plaschke: Technische Universität Braunschweig (TUBS)

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Mercury’s exosphere contains various neutral species, including hydrogen, helium, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, aluminum, iron, and manganese. Although lithium has been predicted to exist, it had not been detected until now. Here, we demonstrate the presence of lithium in Mercury’s exosphere, using data from the Mercury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft. The sporadic detection of lithium suggests its meteoritic origin, likely released through evaporation caused by sporadic meteoroid impacts. Our findings provide strong evidence supporting the hypothesis that (micro-)meteoroids and larger meteoroids, which have continuously and sporadically impacted Mercury’s surface over billions of years, are a significant source of volatile elements and contributed substantially to Mercury’s unexpectedly volatile-rich surface. This detection emphasizes the significant role of meteoroids in shaping Mercury’s exosphere and provides insights into the planet’s evolution and the history of volatile elements in the Solar System.

Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61516-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-61516-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61516-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().