BepiColombo blasts off in pursuit of Einstein
A joint European and Japanese mission to Mercury sets off to answer questions about the planet’s geology, magnetosphere, and to try and prove Einstein wrong.
A joint European and Japanese mission to Mercury sets off to answer questions about the planet’s geology, magnetosphere, and to try and prove Einstein wrong.
By studying the precise movements of NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft around Mercury we can constrain some of the fundamental parameters of general relativity.
Mercury’s high density has been a longstanding puzzle in planetary science. Its density means that it must have a significantly higher iron abundance than Venus, Earth, Mars, or the asteroids, probably in the form of a large iron core. NASA’s MESSENGER mission has challenged many of the hypothesized ways to create an iron-rich Mercury; a new hypothesis is required.