How Are the Surfaces of the Moon & Mercury Similar?

Features

• Most of the craters formed in the early years of the solar system, around 4.5 billion years ago, when meteors bombarded all the planets and their moons. You can still see the craters on Mercury and the Moon, because neither has weather systems to erode them or a biosphere to cover them. Mercury's surface is less cratered than the Moon, because Mercury is larger with higher gravity, reducing the number of secondary impacts.

Similarities

• Scientists believe large, flat areas on Mercury's surface to be ancient, solidified lava fields, also found on the Moon. There is evidence of water ice, found in the shadow of crater rims, on both. Another similarity is that neither Mercury nor the Moon is seismologically active.

Environment

• Visitors would require protective spacesuits as neither Mercury nor the Moon has an atmosphere. Both experience extreme temperature variations between night and day. With no atmospheres to scatter light, the sky on both would look empty and black, apart from the sun and nearby planets.