Origins of Mercury's Big Heart of Iron: Exploring Pathways to Form High Core Mass Fraction (CMF) Planets via N-body Simulations

Haniyeh Tajer, Ji Wang, Anna C. Childs +3

Mercury's core mass fraction (CMF) is ~0.7, more than double that of the other rocky planets in the solar system, which have CMFs of ~0.3. The origin of Mercury's large, iron-rich…