Mercury’s DEM and FAG fractal structure – indicator for meteorite bombardment by different density space bodies

Abstract

Over the past few decades Messenger spacecraft missions have provided to the scientific community a huge amount of new data on the geology and physics of the planet closest to the Sun – Mercury. The collected data became the starting material for the building of the gravity field model of the Mercury – HgM008. Based on it, a very recent NASA scientific team has released a high-quality “free-air” gravity map for the topography of the small planet. This enables new analyzes and interpretations of Mercury’s physics and geology. The present study presents the results of Mercury’s free-air gravity field (FAG) and digital elevation model (DEM) analysis using the (multi)fractal approach. The obtained results shed new light on the natural processes that have taken place during the geological evolution of Mercury. The results confirmed clear differences between the two hemispheres of the planet. Within the northern hemisphere fractal dimensions of FAG and DEM have variations (𝑅2) 0.908 and 0.942, while within the southern hemisphere 𝑅2 of FAG and DEM have values 0.975 and 0.857. The results obtained determine the different intensity and density characteristics of space objects colliding with Mercury’s two hemispheres, which necessitates additional interpretations.