Image: JHUAPL.

Sean Solomon delivered a lunch-hour lecture today to the 2010 DTM and GL Summer Scholars on the MESSENGER mission to Mercury. In addition to presenting an overview of the mission’s key scientific questions, its instrumentation, and timeline, Solomon gave the students an overview of key discoveries made during MESSENGER’s three flybys of the planet in January 2008, October 2008, and September 2009, and the many questions they have generated for the team. MESSENGER imaged most of the surface of Mercury during its three flybys and has viewed the planet from several perspectives with each of its instruments. The spacecraft is set to begin orbiting about Mercury in March 2011, flying as close to the planet’s surface as 200 km, and orbiting Mercury twice every 24 hours. For more on the MESSENGER mission, click here.