A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Mercury’s Dynamic Magnetosphere:
From MESSENGER to Bepi-Colombo Era

Gang Kai Poh

The Catholic University of America ~ Physics Department
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Wed, February 16, 2022 - 4:00 PM

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Being the closest planet to the Sun and one of the few planets visible in the night sky, Mercury has long fascinated both ancient and modern astronomers. However, little is known about the surface and interior geophysics, and space environment of the smallest planet in our Solar System; it wasn’t until the start of the Space Age when we caught a brief glimpse of the interaction between Mercury and its interplanetary environment with three flybys of the Mariner 10 spacecraft from 1974 – 1975. Decades later, NASA’s MEcury, Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft finally became the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury on March 2011, after a long six and a half year long journey to Mercury. Since then, the MESSENGER mission had revolutionized our understanding of Mercury's dynamic magnetosphere and heliospheric environment with its continuous in-situ fields and plasma measurements. In this colloquium, we will review our current state of knowledge of Mercury’s plasma environment and its interaction with the extreme solar wind conditions within the inner heliosphere. Through data analysis and numerical modelling, we will discuss how the extreme solar wind conditions at Mercury’s orbit becomes a strong driver for intense interaction between the solar wind and Mercury’s small, but dynamic magnetosphere, and the global implications of such interactions. Finally, we will discuss the future of Mercury exploration with the upcoming ESA-JAXA Bepi-Colombo dual-spacecraft mission to Mercury.

If you have any questions about the Colloquium Series  or would like to make a donation please contact the Physics Department, cua-physics@cua.edu or (202) 319-5315.