The interior configuration of planet Mercury constrained by moment of inertia and planetary contraction

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of present-day interior configuration models for Mercury considering cores of Fe-S or Fe-Si alloy, the latter possibly covered by a solid FeS layer, in light of the improved limit of planetary contraction of 7 km derived from MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging observations of surface landforms. Density profiles, generated by a Monte Carlo approach, are constrained by Mercury's mass, polar moment of inertia (C), fraction of polar moment corresponding to its outer solid shell (Cm/C), and observed planetary contraction. Results show that the outer liquid core boundary is constrained to 1985-2090 km in radius, where large radii correspond to high Si and S core contents and high mantle densities or the presence of an FeS layer at the top of the outer core. The bulk core S and Si contents are within 2.8-8.9 wt % and above 8.5 wt %, respectively, where an increase of light element core content correlates positively with mantle density and core size. The size of the inner core is constrained by the observed planetary contraction to below 1454 or 1543 km in radius for bulk cores rich in S (near 8.9 wt %) or Si (near 25 wt %), respectively. For cores poor in light elements, inner cores up to 1690 km in radius remain consistent with the observed planetary contraction. Finally, we show that solid FeS at outer core conditions, previously argued to float on liquid Fe-S, may be denser than the residual liquid. This implies that a separate mechanism may be required to maintain an FeS layer at the suggested location.