Home - BepiColombo GGWG
Geodesy and Geophysics Working Group
Primary Questions
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What is the thickness and density of the crust?
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What has shaped the surface of Mercury?
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What are the relative roles of tectonism, volcanism and impacts with respect to Mercury’s surface?
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How strong was the contraction and when did it occur?
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What are the regions in the southern hemisphere that present crustal magnetization?
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What is the structure and rheology (i.e, viscosity, rigidity) of the mantle?
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What is the size, density and physical state (liquid, solid) of the core?
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What is the relative amount of volatiles in the core?
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What is Mercury’s deviation from hydrostatic state?
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What is the level of precision of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity?
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Are any violations of the Strong Equivalence Principle (SEP) in the weak-field?
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How does the solar inter- nal evolution affect planetary ephemerides?
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How and when did Mercury get captured in the 3:2 spin-orbit resonance?
Science Objectives
- Local and global mapping of gravity and topographic relief
- Local and global measurements of the magnetic field
- Accurate global determination of Mercury’s degree 2 shape and gravity
- Gravitational and surface tides measured by the Love numbers k2 and h2, including phase lags.
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Polar moment of inertia of the outer layers (crust and mantle) by measuring librations with altimetric data.
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Internal magnetic field magnitude and structure (i.e., dipole and equatorial offset)
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Accurate measure of the offset between the center of mass and the center of figure
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Mercury rotation from altimetry and orbital period from radio science
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Parameterized PostNewtonian (PPN) γ, β, α1, and α2. Nordvedt's parameter η.
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Sun’s J2, and GM and its temporal variation due to solar mass loss rate.
Meetings (most recent first)
Virtual Meetings:
1st GGWG virtual meeting on Friday 18 June. Two science talks:
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Jurrien S. Knibbe, "Mercury's Interior Structure Constrained by Density and P-Wave Velocity Measurements of Liquid Fe-Si-C Alloys"
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Gregor Steinbrügge "Challenges on Mercury's Interior Structure Posed by the New Measurements of its Obliquity and Tides""
and final discussion.
2nd GGWG virtual meeting on Friday 24 September. Two science talks:
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Csilla Orgel, "Re‐examination of the population, stratigraphy, and sequence of Mercurian basins: Implications for Mercury's early impact history"
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Nicola Tosi "Inferring Mercury’s evolution from impact basins and crustal thickness""
and final discussion.
3rd GGWG virtual meeting on Friday 26 November. Two science talks:
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Valentina Galluzzi, "Asymmetric Magnetic Anomalies Over Young Impact Craters on Mercury"
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Alain Plattner "Mercury's Northern Rise Core‐Field Magnetic Anomaly""
and final discussion.
4th GGWG virtual meeting on Friday 21 January 2022. Two science talks:
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Agnes Fienga, "INPOP Planetary Ephemerides and BepiColombo : from Orbit Improvements to GR and Alternative Theories tests"
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Clifford M. Will, "Zombie Alert! Solar System Tests of General Relativity are Still Alive""
and final discussion.
5th GGWG virtual meeting on Friday 25 March 2022. Two science talks:
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Mathieu Dumberry, "The influence of a fluid core and a solid inner core on the Cassini state of Mercury"
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Sander Goossens, “Evaluation of recent measurements of Mercury’s moments of inertia and tides using a comprehensive Markov Chain Monte Carlo method"
and final discussion.
6th GGWG virtual meeting on Friday 17 June 2022. One science talk:
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Ingo Wardinski, "Mercury's Interior Structure Inferred from Magnetic Field Measurements"
and final discussion.
GGWG meeting on July 11 June 2022 with the following agenda:
- 2:00-2:20pm BELA report + 10-min discussion
- 2:30-2:50pm ISA report + 10-min discussion
- 3:00-3:20pm MORE report + 10-min discussion
- 3:30-3:50pm MPO-MAG report + 10-min discussion
- 4:00-5:00pm Short presentations on the first results with Venus and Mercury flybys
7th GGWG virtual meeting on Friday 24 March 2023. The science talk:
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Laura Lark, "Sulfides in Mercury's Mantle: Implications for Mercury's Interior as Interpreted From Moment of Inertia"
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Sophia Zomerdijk-Russell, "Modeling the Time-Dependent Magnetic Fields That BepiColombo Will Use to Probe Down Into Mercury's Mantle"
and final discussion.
8th GGWG virtual meeting on Friday 9 June 2023. The meeting is focused on:
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BepiColombo Perihelion Science Strategy
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TMX
and final discussion.
Resources
Meetings
- Next GGWG virtual meeting will be on September 24.
Working Group Chair
- Alexander Stark
- Antonio Genova
Other Information
- An overview of the Geodesy and Geophysics investigations is reported in https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-021-00808-9