Mercury is the innermost planet in the Solar System. It is also the smallest, and its orbit is the most eccentric (that is, the least perfectly circular) of the eight planets. It orbits the Sun once in about 88 Earth days, completing three rotations about its axis for every two orbits. The planet is named after the Roman god Mercury, the messenger to the gods.

Mercury's surface is heavily cratered and similar in appearance to Earth's Moon, indicating that it has been geologically inactive for billions of years. Due to its near lack of an atmosphere to retain heat, Mercury's surface experiences the steepest temperature gradient of all the planets, ranging from a very cold 100 K at night to a very hot 700 K during the day.

Mercury's axis has the smallest tilt of any of the Solar System's planets, but Mercury's orbital eccentricity is the largest. The seasons on the planet's surface are caused by the variation of its distance from the Sun rather than by the axial tilt, which is the main cause of seasons on Earth and other planets. At perihelion, the intensity of sunlight on Mercury's surface is more than twice the intensity at aphelion. Because the seasons of the planet are produced by the orbital eccentricity instead of the axial tilt, the season does not differ between its two hemispheres.

Because Mercury's orbit lies within Earth's orbit (as does Venus'), it can appear in Earth's sky either as a morning star or an evening star. While Mercury can appear as a very bright object when viewed from Earth, its proximity to the Sun makes it more difficult to see than Venus.

The perihelion of Mercury's orbit precesses around the Sun at an excess of 43 arcseconds per century; a phenomenon that was explained in the 20th century by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

Mercury is bright when viewed from Earth, ranging from -2.3 to 5.7 in apparent magnitude, but is not easily seen as its greatest angular separation from the Sun is only 28.3¡. Since Mercury is normally lost in the glare of the Sun, unless there is a solar eclipse it can be viewed from Earth's Northern Hemisphere only in morning or evening twilight, while its extreme elongations occur in declinations south of the celestial equator, such that it can be seen at favorable apparitions from moderate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere in a fully dark sky.

The first telescopic observations of Mercury were made by Galileo in the early 17th century. Although he observed phases when he looked at Venus, his telescope was not powerful enough to see the phases of Mercury.

In 1631 Pierre Gassendi made the first telescopic observations of the transit of a planet across the Sun when he saw a transit of Mercury predicted by Johannes Kepler.

In 1639 Giovanni Zupi used a telescope to discover that the planet had orbital phases similar to Venus and the Moon. The observation demonstrated conclusively that Mercury orbited around the Sun.

A very rare event in astronomy is the passage of one planet in front of another (occultation), as seen from Earth. Mercury and Venus occult each other every few centuries, and the event of May 28, 1737 is the only one historically observed, having been seen by John Bevis at the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

The next occultation of Mercury by Venus will be on December 3, 2133.

The difficulties inherent in observing Mercury mean that it has been far less studied than the other planets.

In 1800 Johann Schroter made observations of surface features, claiming to have observed 20 km high mountains. Friedrich Bessel used Schroter's drawings to erroneously estimate the rotation period as 24 hours and an axial tilt of 70¡.

In the 1880s Giovanni Schiaparelli mapped the planet more accurately, and suggested that Mercury's rotational period was 88 days, the same as its orbital period due to tidal locking. This phenomenon is known as synchronous rotation and is shown by Earth's Moon.

The effort to map the surface of Mercury was continued by Eugenios Antoniadi, who published a book in 1934 that included both maps and his own observations. Many of the planet's surface features, particularly the albedo features, take their names from Antoniadi's map.

In June 1962 Soviet scientists at the Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics of the USSR Academy of Sciences led by Vladimir Kotelnikov became first to bounce radar signal off Mercury and receive it, starting radar observations of the planet.

Three years later radar observations by Americans Gordon Pettengill and R. Dyce using 300-meter Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Puerto Rico showed conclusively that the planet's rotational period was about 59 days.

The theory that Mercury's rotation was synchronous had become widely held, and it was a surprise to astronomers when these radio observations were announced. If Mercury were tidally locked, its dark face would be extremely cold, but measurements of radio emission revealed that it was much hotter than expected. Astronomers were reluctant to drop the synchronous rotation theory and proposed alternative mechanisms such as powerful heat-distributing winds to explain the observations.

Italian astronomer Giuseppe Colombo noted that the rotation value was about two-thirds of Mercury's orbital period, and proposed that the planet's orbital and rotational periods were locked into a 3:2 rather than a 1:1 resonance.

Data from Mariner 10 subsequently confirmed this view. This means that Schiaparelli's and Antoniadi's maps were not "wrong". Instead, the astronomers saw the same features during every second orbit and recorded them, but disregarded those seen in the meantime, when Mercury's other face was toward the Sun, since the orbital geometry meant that these observations were made under poor viewing conditions.

Ground-based observations did not shed much further light on the innermost planet, and it was not until the first space probe flew past Mercury that many of its most fundamental properties became known. However, recent technological advances have led to improved ground-based observations.

In 2000, high-resolution lucky imaging observations were conducted by the Mount Wilson Observatory 1.5 meter Hale telescope. They provided the first views that resolved surface features on the parts of Mercury which were not imaged in the Mariner mission.

Later imaging has shown evidence of a huge double-ringed impact basin even larger than the Caloris Basin in the non-Mariner-imaged hemisphere. It has informally been dubbed the Skinakas Basin. Most of the planet has been mapped by the Arecibo radar telescope, with 5 km resolution, including polar deposits in shadowed craters of what may be water ice.

Mercury consists of approximately 70% metallic and 30% silicate material. Mercury's density is the second highest in the Solar System at 5.427 g/cm3, only slightly less than Earth's density of 5.515 g/cm3. If the effect of gravitational compression were to be factored out, the materials of which Mercury is made would be denser, with an uncompressed density of 5.3 g/cm3 versus Earth's 4.4 g/cm3. Mercury's density can be used to infer details of its inner structure. While the Earth's high density results appreciably from gravitational compression, particularly at the core, Mercury is much smaller and its inner regions are not as compressed. Therefore, for it to have such a high density, its core must be large and rich in iron.

Geologists estimate that Mercury's core occupies about 42% of its volume; for Earth this proportion is 17%. Recent research suggests that Mercury has a molten core. Surrounding the core is a 500Ð700 km mantle consisting of silicates. Based on data from the Mariner 10 mission and Earth-based observation, Mercury's crust is believed to be 100Ð300 km thick. One distinctive feature of Mercury's surface is the presence of numerous narrow ridges, extending up to several hundred kilometers in length. It is believed that these were formed as Mercury's core and mantle cooled and contracted at a time when the crust had already solidified.

Mercury's core has a higher iron content than that of any other major planet in the Solar System, and several theories have been proposed to explain this. The most widely accepted theory is that Mercury originally had a metal-silicate ratio similar to common chondrite meteorites, thought to be typical of the Solar System's rocky matter, and a mass approximately 2.25 times its current mass. Early in the Solar System's history, Mercury may have been struck by a planetesimal of approximately 1/6 that mass and several hundred kilometers across. The impact would have stripped away much of the original crust and mantle, leaving the core behind as a relatively major component. A similar process, known as the giant impact hypothesis, has been proposed to explain the formation of Earth's Moon.

Alternatively, Mercury may have formed from the solar nebula before the Sun's energy output had stabilized. The planet would initially have had twice its present mass, but as the protosun contracted, temperatures near Mercury could have been between 2,500 and 3,500 K and possibly even as high as 10,000 K. Much of Mercury's surface rock could have been vaporized at such temperatures, forming an atmosphere of "rock vapor" which could have been carried away by the solar wind.

A third hypothesis proposes that the solar nebula caused drag on the particles from which Mercury was accreting, which meant that lighter particles were lost from the accreting material and not gathered by Mercury.Each hypothesis predicts a different surface composition, and two upcoming space missions, MESSENGER and BepiColombo, both will make observations to test them. MESSENGER has found higher-than-expected potassium and sulfur levels on the surface, suggesting that the giant impact hypothesis and vaporization of the crust and mantle did not occur since potassium and sulfur would have been driven off by the extreme heat of these events. The findings would seem to favor the third hypothesis, however further analysis of the data is needed.

Craters on Mercury range in diameter from small bowl-shaped cavities to multi-ringed impact basins hundreds of kilometers across. They appear in all states of degradation, from relatively fresh rayed craters to highly degraded crater remnants. Mercurian craters differ subtly from lunar craters in that the area blanketed by their ejecta is much smaller, a consequence of Mercury's stronger surface gravity. According to IAU rules, each new crater must be named after an artist that was famous for more than fifty years, and dead for more than three years, before the date the crater is named.

The largest known crater is Caloris Basin, with a diameter of 1,550 km. The impact that created the Caloris Basin was so powerful that it caused lava eruptions and left a concentric ring over 2 km tall surrounding the impact crater. At the antipode of the Caloris Basin is a large region of unusual, hilly terrain known as the "Weird Terrain". One hypothesis for its origin is that shock waves generated during the Caloris impact traveled around the planet, converging at the basin's antipode (180 degrees away). The resulting high stresses fractured the surface. Alternatively, it has been suggested that this terrain formed as a result of the convergence of ejecta at this basin's antipode.

Overall, about 15 impact basins have been identified on the imaged part of Mercury. A notable basin is the 400 km wide, multi-ring Tolstoj Basin which has an ejecta blanket extending up to 500 km from its rim and a floor that has been filled by smooth plains materials. Beethoven Basin has a similar-sized ejecta blanket and a 625 km diameter rim. Like the Moon, the surface of Mercury has likely incurred the effects of space weathering processes, including Solar wind and micrometeorite impacts.

Mercury: Read More ... Wikipedia

Mercury MESSENGER Explorations

  All of Mercury   NASA - June 12, 2013 2013

For the first time, the entire surface of planet Mercury has been mapped. Detailed observations of the innermost planet's surprising crust have been ongoing since the robotic MESSENGER spacecraft first passed Mercury in 2008 and began orbiting in 2011. Previously, much of the Mercury's surface was unknown as it is too far for Earth-bound telescopes to see clearly, while the Mariner 10 flybys in the 1970s observed only about half. The video above is a compilation of thousands of images of Mercury rendered in exaggerated colors to better contrast different surface features. Visible on the rotating world are rays emanating from a northern impact that stretch across much of the planet, while about half-way through the video the light colored Caloris Basin rotates into view, a northern ancient impact feature that filled with lava. MESSENGER has now successfully completed its primary and first extended missions.

  NASA Spacecraft Makes 1st Complete Map of Planet Mercury   Live Science - March 6, 2013
The surface of the planet Mercury has been completely mapped for the first time in history, scientists say. The closest planet to the sun hasn't received as much scientific attention as some of its more flashy solar system neighbors, such as Mars, but NASA's Messenger spacecraft is helping to close the gap.

Colors of Mercury   NASA - March 1, 2013

The colors of the solar system's innermost planet are enhanced in this tantalizing view, based on global image data from the Mercury-orbiting MESSENGER spacecraft. Human eyes would not discern the clear color differences but they are real none the less, indicating distinct chemical, mineralogical, and physical regions across the cratered surface. Notable at the upper right, Mercury's large, circular, tan colored feature known as the Caloris basin was created by an impacting comet or asteroid during the solar system's early years. The ancient basin was subsequently flooded with lava from by volcanic activity, analogous to the formation of the lunar maria. Color contrasts also make the light blue and white young crater rays, material blasted out by recent impacts, easy to follow as they extend across a darker blue, low reflectance terrain.

Mercury's magnetic field -- nipped in the bud   PhysOrg - December 23, 2011
Mercury, the smallest of the eight planets with a diameter of 4900 kilometres and the closest to the Sun, looks more like the Moon than the Earth from the outside. It is the only rocky planet that has a global magnetic field like Earth. But why is its magnetic field so much weaker than Earth's? Possible explanation: the solar wind counteracts Mercury's internal dynamo and thus weakens its magnetic field.

Epic volcanic activity flooded Mercury's north polar region   PhysOrg - September 29, 2011
Ever since the Mariner 10 mission in 1974 snapped the first pictures of Mercury, planetary scientists have been intrigued by smooth plains covering parts of the surface. Some suspected past volcanic activity, but there were no telltale signs like protruding volcanoes. Also, Mercury's northern plains are the same brightness as its cratered highlands, yet different from volcanic deposits on the Moon, which are darker than the highlands.

Mercury's youngest volcano found   BBC - July 16, 2010

Scientists analyzing data from Nasa's Messenger spacecraft say they have located some of Mercury's most recent volcanic activity. This indicates that rather than being a tiny, long-dead planet, as scientists had assumed, Mercury was volcanically active for much of its "life". The researchers say it also sheds light on how other planets in our Solar System evolved.

Hidden Territory on Mercury Revealed   PhysOrg - November 4, 2009
Despite shutting down temporarily because of a power system switchover during a solar eclipse, the spacecraft's cameras and instruments revealed 6 percent of the planet's surface never before seen at close range, including this picturesque region pocked by impact craters and molded by volcanic activity. The bright region in the upper-right corner of the image surrounds a suspected explosive volcanic vent. The 290-km-diameter double-ring basin near the bottom of the image has a smooth interior that may be the result of effusive volcanism.

Messenger spies iron on Mercury   BBC - November 4, 2009
Mercury is even more of an "iron planet" than scientists had previously supposed. Richer concentrations of iron and titanium have been seen on Mercury's surface by Nasa's Messenger probe. Previous Earth and spacecraft-based observations had detected only very low amounts of iron in the silicate minerals covering the innermost world. Because of its immense density, scientists have already assumed much of Mercury's interior contains iron. Messenger sees the surface iron bound up in oxides with titanium.

Magnetic Twisters "Dance" Across Mercury, Study Says   National Geographic - May 1, 2009
The ever-present supersonic gale from the sun creates never-before-seen magnetic "twisters" that "dance" across Mercury's magnetic field and occasionally touch down on its surface, new observations have revealed. These invisible formations, made of high-energy electrons, kick up material from Mercury's surface and send it flying into the tiny, rocky planet's tenuous atmosphere, according to new research. Mercury's magnetic twisters are created when solar wind which is actually a stream of charged particles - triggers a process on the tiny planet called magnetic reconnection. This is when magnetic field lines flowing from the sun splice together with the field lines around Mercury. The connection transfers solar wind energy into the planetary magnetic field and sends charged particles shooting toward the planet along the field lines. Bundles of these connected field lines then penetrate the planet's magnetic boundary and their particles are sent whirling by the solar wind, forming the twisters.

Mercury's magnetic field is "alive." NASA - July 4, 2008

"By combining Mariner 10 and MESSENGER data, the science team was able to reconstruct a comprehensive geologic history of the entire Caloris basin interior," says James Head of Brown University, lead author of one of the Science reports. "The basin was formed from an impact by an asteroid or comet during a period of heavy bombardment in the first billion years of Solar System history. As with the lunar maria, a period of volcanic activity followed, producing lava flows that filled the basin interior. This volcanism is responsible for the comparatively light, red material of the interior plains intermingled with [newer] impact crater deposits." Finding volcanic vents around Caloris resolves an old debate among planetary scientists: Are smooth plains on Mercury, such as the interior of Caloris basin, caused by erupting lava or some other process? Lava has won the day.

Dark Halos/Craters Discovered on Mercury NASA - March 10, 2008

Scientists studying the harvest of photos from the MESSENGER spacecraft's Jan. 14th flyby of Mercury have found several craters with strange dark halos and one crater with a spectacularly shiny bottom. "The halos are really exceptional," says MESSENGER science team member Clark Chapman of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "We've never seen anything like them on Mercury before and their formation is a mystery." The two craters at the bottom of the frame are located in Mercury's giant Caloris Basin, a thousand mile wide depression formed billions of years ago when Mercury collided with a comet or asteroid. For scale, the larger of the two is about 40 miles wide. Both craters have dark rims or "halos" and the one on the left is partially filled with an unknown shiny material. Chapman offers two possible explanations for the halos:

1. The Layer Cake Theory--There could be a layer of dark material under the surface of Caloris Basin, resulting in chocolate-colored rims around craters that penetrate to just the right depth. If such a subterranean layer exists, however, it cannot be unique to the Basin. "We've found a number of dark halos outside of Caloris as well for instance, these two near Mercury's south pole."

2. The Impact Glass Model--Thermal energy from the impacts melted some of Mercury's rocky surface. Perhaps molten rock splashed to the edge of the craters where it re-solidified as a dark, glassy substance. Similar "impact melts" are found around craters on Earth and the Moon. If this hypothesis is correct, future astronauts on Mercury exploring the crater rims would find themselves crunching across fields of tiny glass shards. Chapman notes that the Moon also has some dark haloed craters--"Tycho is a well-known example." But lunar halos tend to be subtle and/or fragmentary. "The ones we see on Mercury are much more eye-catching and distinct."

Mercury has super long, glowing tail ABC - March 4, 2008

Mercury has a glowing dragon tail of sodium atoms that is more than seven times longer than ever suspected, scientists report. New measurements of Mercury's yellow-orange tail, which streams in the solar wind like the long tail of a kite, put it at more than 100 times the radius of the planet itself. The neutral sodium atoms that make up the 2.5 million kilometre-long streamer are thought to be blasted off the surface by the sun and micro-meteor impacts. These impart enough energy to launch the atoms into space. Other elements are also in the tail. But it's the sodium that lights up and can be detected. This sodium ion is the 'little atom that could'. It scatters photons like crazy, making it a great clue to various processes at work on and around the planet.

Mercury Craft Shows ''Spider,'' Asteroid Assaults National Geographic - February 1, 2008

A color image taken by the MESENGER spacecraft shows the side of Mercury previously unseen by human eyes. The shot, released yesterday, is a mosaic of images from the craft's 11 narrow-band color filters. Subtle patterns revealed by the filterswhich can capture light in wavelengths invisible to the naked eyewill help astronomers determine the mineral composition of the planet's surface. The bright spots with a bluish tinge are relatively recent impact craters. Some of these have bright streaks, called rays. The streaks are made from crushed rock that was blasted outward during an impact. The large, light-colored circle in the upper right of the image is the inside of the Caloris Basin. The only previous mission to Mercury, Mariner 10, viewed only the eastern (right) portion of this enormous impact crater. MESSENGER has now shown that Caloris is filled with smooth plains that are brighter than the surrounding terrainthe opposite of the shading differences on Earth's moon.

The earliest known recorded observations of Mercury are from the Mul.Apin tablets - the conventional title given to a Babylonian compendium that deals with many diverse aspects of Babylonian astrology. The tablet is in the tradition of earlier star catalogues, the so-called Three Stars Each lists, but represents an expanded version based on more accurate observation, likely compiled around 1000 BC. The text lists the names of 66 stars and constellations and further gives a number of indications, such as rising, setting and culmination dates, that help to map out the basic structure of the Babylonian star map. These observations were most likely made by an Assyrian astronomer around the 14th century BC. The cuneiform name used to designate Mercury on the Mul.Apin tablets is transcribed as Udu.Idim.Gu\u4.Ud ("the jumping planet").

Babylonian records of Mercury date back to the 1st millennium BC. The Babylonians called the planet Nabu after the messenger to the gods in their mythology.

Nabu (in Biblical Hebrew Nebo) is the Assyrian and Babylonian god of wisdom and writing, worshipped by Babylonians as the son of Marduk and his consort, Sarpanitum, and as the grandson of Ea. Nabu's consort was Tashmetum.

Originally, Nabu was a West Semitic deity introduced by the Amorites into Mesopotamia, probably at the same time as Marduk shortly after 2000 BC. While Marduk became Babylon's main deity, Nabu resided in nearby Borsippa in his temple E-zida. He was first called the "scribe and minister of Marduk", later assimilated as Marduk's beloved son from Sarpanitum. During the Babylonian New Year Festival, the cult statue of Nabu was transported from Borsippa to Babylon in order to commune with his father Marduk.

Nabu later became one of the principal gods in Assyria and Assyrians addressed many prayers and inscriptions to Nabu and named children after him. Nabu was the god of writing and scribes and was the keeper of the Tablets of Destiny, in which the fate of humankind was recorded. He was also sometimes worshiped as a fertility god and as a god of water.

Nabu is accorded the office of patron of the scribes, taking over from the Sumerian goddess Nisaba. His symbols are the clay writing tablet with the writing stylus. He wears a horned cap, and stands with hands clasped, in the ancient gesture of priesthood. He rides on a winged dragon (also known as Sirrush) that is initially Marduk's.

His power over human existence is immense, because Nabu engraves the destiny of each person, as the gods have decided, on the tablets of sacred record. Thus, He has the power to increase or diminish, at will, the length of human life. Nabu is mentioned in the Nevi'im of the Tanakh as Nebo in Isaiah 46:1.



A statue of Nabu from Calah, erected during the reign of the Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser III is on display in the British Museum.

In late Babylonian astrology, Nabu was connected with the planet Mercury. As the god of wisdom and writing, he was equated by the Greeks to either Apollo or Hermes, the latter identified by the Romans with their own god Mercury.

In ancient China, Mercury was known as Chen Xing, the Hour Star. It was associated with the direction north and the phase of water in the Wu Xing. However, modern Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese cultures refer to the planet literally as the 'water star', based on the Five elements.

Hindu mythology used the name Buddha for Mercury, and this god was thought to preside over Wednesday.

The god Odin (or Woden) of Germanic paganism was associated with the planet Mercury and Wednesday.

The Maya may have represented Mercury as an owl (or possibly four owls; two for the morning aspect and two for the evening) that served as a messenger to the underworld.

In ancient Indian astronomy, the Surya Siddhanta, an Indian astronomical text of the 5th century, estimates the diameter of Mercury as 3,008 miles, an error of less than 1% from the currently accepted diameter of 3,032 miles. However, this estimate was based upon an inaccurate guess of the planet's angular diameter as 3.0 arcminutes.

In medieval Islamic astronomy, the Andalusian astronomer Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Zarqali in the 11th century described the deferent of Mercury's geocentric orbit as being oval, like an egg or a pignon, although this insight did not influence his astronomical theory or his astronomical calculations.

In the 12th century, Ibn Bajjah observed "two planets as black spots on the face of the Sun," which was later suggested as the transit of Mercury and/or Venus by the Maragha astronomer Qotb al-Din Shirazi in the 13th century.

In India, the Kerala school astronomer Nilakantha Somayaji in the 15th century developed a partially heliocentric planetary model in which Mercury orbits the Sun, which in turn orbits the Earth, similar to the Tychonic system later proposed by Tycho Brahe in the late 16th century.

The Romans named the planet after the swift-footed Roman messenger god, Mercury (Latin Mercurius), which they equated with the Greek Hermes, because it moves across the sky faster than any other planet. The Roman-Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy wrote about the possibility of planetary transits across the face of the Sun in his work Planetary Hypotheses. He suggested that no transits had been observed either because planets such as Mercury were too small to see, or because the transits were too infrequent.

Before the 4th century BC, Greek astronomers believed the planet to be two separate objects: one visible only at sunrise, which they called Apollo - the other visible only at sunset, which they named after the Greek god Hermes. The astronomical symbol for Mercury is a stylized version of Hermes' caduceus.

In Egypt he was the God Thoth.

As one who flew with wings, Mercury is sometimes associated with Ancient Alien Theory and Angels.

Mercury Retrograde

The astrological symbol for the planet is also
one of the alchemical symbols for the metal.

Mercury is the only metal for which the alchemical
planetary name became the common name.

Alchemists often thought of Mercury as the First Matter from which all metals were formed. Different metals could be produced by varying the quality and quantity of sulfur contained within the mercury. An ability to transform mercury into any metal resulted from the essentially mercurial quality of all metals. The purest of these was gold. Mercury was required for the transmutation of base (or impure) metals into gold.

Gold is element 79 and Mercury is element 80 which means that there is only a slight difference between their atomic structures. Element 80

The element was named after the Roman god Mercury, known for speed and mobility. It is associated with the planet Mercury.

Hg is the modern chemical symbol for mercury. It comes from hydrargyrum, a Latinized form of the Greek word "hydrargyros", which is a compound word meaning 'water' and 'silver' - since it is liquid, like water, and yet has a silvery metallic sheen.

Mercury was known to the ancient Chinese and Hindus, and was found in Egyptian tombs that date from 1500 BC.

In China, India and Tibet, Mercury use was thought to prolong life, heal fractures, and maintain generally good health. China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di was said to have been buried in a tomb that contained rivers of flowing mercury, representative of the rivers of China. He was ultimately driven insane and killed by mercury pills intended to give him eternal life.

The ancient Greeks used mercury in ointments and the Romans used it in cosmetics. By 500 BC mercury was used to make amalgams with other metals.

The Hindu word for alchemy is Rasavatam which means '"The way of Mercury".