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Planetary science

Kick for the cosmic clockwork

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Mercury's spin and its orbit around the Sun are tied to each other in a unique arrangement. According to a set of calculations, random asteroid impacts may have aided the planet's evolution into the current spin-orbit pattern.

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Figure 1: Schematic diagram of planetary spin-orbit resonances.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Matija Ćuk is at the SETI Institute, 189 North Bernardo Avenue, Mountain View, California 94043, USA,

    Matija Ćuk

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  1. Matija Ćuk
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Correspondence to Matija Ćuk.

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Ćuk, M. Kick for the cosmic clockwork. Nature Geosci 5, 7–8 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1362

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