Mercury’s interior: New views from MESSENGER – Steven Hauck

Date: Thu. February 6th, 2014, 4:15 pm-5:15 pm
Location: Rockefeller 301

More than 35 years after Mariner 10 made its third and final flyby of the planet Mercury MESSENGER (short for MErcury, Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) became the first spacecraft to orbit the planet in March of 2011. Among the primary goals of the MESSENGER mission are to map its surface, determine the composition of the planet and its exosphere, and to constrain the structure of its interior and the nature of the planetary magnetic field. We will discuss highlights of some of MESSENGER’s major discoveries with a focus on what we are learning about both the construction and the evolution of the interior of the innermost planet.