What can we make of the crater nicknamed "The Spider" on Mercury?

Question

evidence of ancient volcanic activity, a horrific asteroid/comet impact millions of years ago....

or, just to be silly, an ancient spaceship crash after taking a wrong turn at Jupiter...

Answer 1

looks like a crater on crack....



It's another case of "I've never seen anything like it before, Captain!". I used to think that Spock used that line way too many times for a science officer, and I think I'm starting to get tired of hearing it from astronomers and planetologists. We know that we have a tremendous amount to learn, that every new body in space is probably different than anything we've ever seen. I don't mind the wonder and awe, but I am getting tired of the "surprise!" It's almost like it's faked just to justify requesting more money in the budget for next year's science missions.



the preceding opinion was expressed by Dave Bowman and does not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of this web page, Yahoo Answers, NASA or JPL.





Edit: Rabbit, there is no PERMANENT "dark cold side" of Mercury. Mercury rotates, although it is about six months from sunrise to sunset and from sunset to sunrise. The reason we can see the "spider" crater at all is because it is now IN the sunlight on the "day" side, therefore well lighted and hot.

Answer 2

Must have been a really big space ship.



The major fracture leading from the crater, similar lesser fracture lines show from which direction the small asteroid/large meteor struck the planet.



Remember too, that Mercury has an inconsequential atmosphere, so unlike the ablation by friction in our atmosphere, what strikes us is appreciably smaller than what first arrived in the upper atmosphere.



On our moon we see splatter lines at impact craters. The "spider" shows a more solid surface, and it is on the dark, cold side. Our moon makes full rotations in the sunlight, so it has a comparatively warmer surface structure. The cold rock of the Mercury dark side would then shatter.



Try this at home: take two ceramic plates and warm one in the oven (at low) and chill another in the freezer; then drop both on a concrete floor; both will break, but the cold plate will shatter more finely and completely than the warmer.

Answer 3

Hi. To me it looks like an impact crater (complete with the 'recoil' in the center) which happened on a site with relatively thin crust. I would guess the molten lava flowed up through the cracks. My opinion.

Answer 4

Looks like just another impact site to me. I've seen similar one's on our moon with radial lines like the ones from Tycho near the south pole of our moon execpt that the impact on Mercury was on a much harder surface.

Answer 5

"the spider" as us scientists refer to it, is actually a type of dragon that used to inhabit earth, but was chased away by king arthur and lancelot after they had retrieved the holy grail. It is believed to have been on mercury for nearly 3 years now and gains its fire breathing powers from the sun.

Answer 6

it was not an alien silly, lol,

it was a floating wicked large building where an evil wanna be god, ruler floats in looking for people to worship him,he searches for a new home, wait till he finds us, he will try to take over the world with lots of little evil monsters.

umm... we been found already but it will take a couple of years of planning.