RASC-Van lecture, 7:30: New Views of Mercury from MESSENGER, Dr. C. Johnson, UBC

Please take special note of the location:

The RASC Vancouver public lecture for Thursday March 8 will be held at the UBC Hennings Physics Building, Room 201.

The lecture will begin at the usual time of 7:30PM.

For directions, please consult the UBC Wayfinding site:

http://www.maps.ubc.ca/PROD/index.php

The North Parkade and the UBC bus loop are about a five-minute walk from the Hennings Building.

Dr. Catherine Johnson,
UBC Earth and Ocean Sciences,
MESSENGER (http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/) spacecraft science team

Title: New Views of Mercury from MESSENGER

On March 18, 2011 MESSENGER became the first spacecraft ever to orbit our solar system’s innermost planet. The MESSENGER orbit is highly elliptical with a minimum periapse altitude of 200km at a latitude of ~60°N, an orbital period of 12 hours and an apoapse altitude of 15,300 km. Since orbit insertion MESSENGER has collected magnetic, gravity, altimetry, spectroscopic and imaging data. Major findings and puzzles to date include(1) constraints on surface composition from imaging and compositional data and their implications for models for Mercury’s formation, (2) surface and interior geophysical structure from altimetry, gravity and magnetic data, and (3) the major structure and dynamics of the magnetosphere and Mercury’s tenuous exosphere.

Dr. Catherine Johnson (http://www.eos.ubc.ca/about/faculty/C.Johnson.html) is a Professor of Geophysics at UBC. The general theme of her research is understanding the interior structure and evolution of the terrestrial planets. She is currently a Participating Scientist on NASA's MESSENGER mission.

Astro-coffee and astro-cookies will be served after the meeting, so please join us!

This is the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada - Vancouver (http://www.vancouverastronomy.com/) monthly meeting and is shared with the general public at no charge.