NASA's Messenger spacecraft is about a quarter of the way through its scheduled mission studying Mercury from orbit, and it is already delivering surprises. Of course, scientists always seem surprised when a probe's findings don't match their preconceived notions. It's a quirk they have.
In this case, Messenger has so far gathered evidence that volcanism has played a larger role in Mercury's history than previously thought. Going along with that in all likelihood, sulphur is more abundant on the surface than imagined. Mercury's magnetic field is also different. It's shifted to the north, seemingly giving the planet's southern hemisphere less protection from the fierce solar wind.
Mercury, it's turning out, is not a bigger version of Earth's Moon, or a smaller yet denser Mars, but a unique world unto itself.
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