U-M instrument shows what planet Mercury is made of

PRESS RELEASE Date Released: Friday, July 4, 2008 Source: University of Michigan ANN ARBOR, Mich.--By measuring the charged particles in the planet Mercury's magnetic field, a University of Michigan sensor enabled the first observations about the surface and atmospheric composition of the closest world to the sun. "We now know more about what Mercury's made of than ever before," said Thomas Zurbuchen, a professor in the departments of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences and Aerospace Engineering. "Holy cow, we found way more than we expected!" Zurbuchen is project leader of the Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS), a soda can-sized sensor on board the MESSENGER spacecraft, which performed the first of three scheduled Mercury flybys in January. A paper on FIPS' results from this flyby is published in the July 4 edition... [read full story]