| Session Details | |
| Section | PS - Planetary Sciences |
| Session Title | Exploration of Mercury |
| Main Convener | Dr. Jorn Helbert (DLR, Germany) |
| Co-convener(s) | Prof. Sho Sasaki (National Astronomical Observatory, Japan) |
| Session Description | Mercury is an important planet in the solar system. It is the smallest of the terrestrial planets, but it has an Earth-like magnetic field and it seems to have a long volcanic history. The three flybys of the NASA spacecraft MESSENGER changed significantly our view of Mercury. At the same time the instruments for the ESA/JAXA mission BepiColombo are build and tested to explore the planet further. It is the right time to rethink our models of Mercury and formulate new questions - both for the orbital phase of MESSENGER and for BepiColombo |