BepiColombo's transfer module let go on schedule, and the spacecraft ran the step without help from the ground. The two manoeuvres that decide whether the mission returns any Mercury data are still 79 and 97 days out.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 33%
- Operator
- Operator 57%
- Investor
- Investor 10%
Reality
- Evidence80
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+5
- Incentives40
- Confidence74
BepiColombo's laser altimeter fired into open space for the first time since 2017
The Bern-led BELA team ran the instrument's laser in 10-second, 10-minute and hour-long steps on 14 September, confirming it survived eight years of cruise. The pulses went into open space.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption45
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives62
- Confidence62
Hokkaido team raises Mercury's measured contraction to 11.6 km after correcting for rough terrain
Shortening structures turn up more often on smooth ground than on rough. Correcting for that detection bias raises Mercury's radial contraction from 8.3 to 11.6 kilometres, and the authors say even that is probably low.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+18
- Incentives40
- Confidence57
Mercury's weak core field can account for the crustal magnetism across most of its mapped north
A reanalysis of MESSENGER's low-altitude passes finds the planet's weak present-day field enough to explain crustal magnetism over more than 85 percent of the area north of 38 degrees north, a region covering under a fifth of Mercury.
Reality
- Evidence60
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+18
- Incentives20
- Confidence55
Mercury's lumpiest terrain carries the fewest shrinkage wrinkles, which the authors read as impact debris burying the record. Correct for that and total contraction rises to as much as 23 km, with the thermal models still to be redone.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 42%
- Operator
- Operator 33%
- Investor
- Investor 25%
Reality
- Evidence64
- Adoption18
- Hype gap+22
- Incentives40
- Confidence66
High-pressure experiments rule carbon out as the missing light element in Mercury's core
Experiments at Liege and KU Leuven reproduced Mercury's core formation and produced a graphite crust 40 to 120 metres thick above a core holding under 0.5% carbon, far too little to explain the planet's density deficit.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives58
- Confidence58
Half-millimetre glass beads push Mercury's lava source deeper into its mantle
A team calibrated infrared spectra against beads of known silica content, checked the method on the Moon where returned rocks can grade it, and now reads Mercury's surface as up to 25 percent poorer in silica than assumed.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+18
- Incentives45
- Confidence48
Remeasured silica at 37% pushes Mercury's extinct volcanism deeper into the mantle
A German team calibrated infrared spectra against lab-made glass beads, tested the method on the Moon where returned samples exist, and came back with a crustal silica fraction about a quarter below the accepted one.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption20
- Hype gap+18
- Incentives55
- Confidence50