NASA Mercury Mission May Hold Clues to Earth's Origins and Evolution

March 25, 2015

Sean Solomon, director of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, has been leading NASA’s MESSENGER mission to Mercury for the last four years. MESSENGER is the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. Now it is expected to crash to the surface on April 30 as the mission comes to a close. But Solomon believes MESSENGER has given us significant data from mapping Mercury’s surface and delving into the planet’s origins, atmosphere, magnetic field and interior. It may even have given us clues into how Earth formed and evolved.

Read: Best Images Ever of Mercury's Scorched Surface, Scientific American, March 17, 2015

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