The curious internal magnetic fields of Mercury and the Moon

Joana S. Oliveiro

Sala Hall, edificio de Dirección. Martes 24 de septiembre, 12 h.

In this seminar I will give an overview of the work I have been developing, which comprises two planets: Mercury and the Moon. I will start with the core magnetic field of Mercury as measured by MESSENGER. I will present the technique I have applied to such regional measurements, and demonstrate the very hard conditions Mercury is facing being so close to the Sun. Then I will demonstrate how I constrain the ancient dynamo core field, by using crustal magnetic field information for the Moon, and Mercury. At the end of this seminar, I hope to have convinced you that both Mercury and the Moon need more attention from future missions!

Figure: Intensity and spherical components of the core magnetic field of Mercury at the northern hemisphere (the maps are in polar view, where the center is the pole north).

Joana S. Oliveiro studied physics (bachelor degree) and specialized in astrophysics and instrumentation for space (masters degree), at Coimbra's University, in Portugal. Later she focused on the Mercury core magnetic field modeling during her PhD at the Laboratory of Planetology and Geodynamics of Nantes, in France. She expanded her expertise to lunar crustal magnetic field studies during her first postdoc at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris. Currently, Joana is a research fellow associated with Bepicolombo mission, at the European Space Agency at ESTEC center in The Nertherlands. Her research is focused on internal (core and crustal) magnetic fields of planets, that helps to constrain the dynamo history and evolution.