Speaker
Description
BepiColombo is the joint European Space Agency ESA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA mission to Mercury, launched in 2018. Of the two orbiters, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter has two infrared spectrometers onboard. Centrum Badań Kosmicznych PAN (CBK PAN) provided the pointing unit to the Mercury Radiometer and Thermal Infrared Spectrometer (MERTIS). In December 2024, MERTIS obtained its first data during fifth Mercury flyby. BepiColombo will achieve Mercury orbit insertion in November 2026 and the nominal science operations will begin in April 2027. The surface of Mercury displays broad regions of distinct geochemical compositions – terranes. They testify to a complex, yet elusive crustal evolution of Mercury. In CBK PAN, we will study the tectonic and volcanic processes at the border of these terranes using petrological, geochemical, and structural geology methods. The investigations will be based on the data obtained by MERTIS and other relevant instruments. We will focus in particular on areas where contractional structures intersect, or are intersected by, extensional structures. The priority sites include the borders of two geochemical terranes in the northern hemisphere: the high-magnesium terrane, and the low-fast terrane. We will additionally study the Rembrandt crater in the southern hemisphere. Rembrandt is the second largest impact structure of Mercury, after the Caloris basin, and similarly formed near the end of the Late Heavy Bombardment, testifying to the earliest tectonic activity recorded in the crust of the planet.
