Research seminars

Both external and internal speakers are invited to the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment to present the latest results of their research.

Everyone is invited, so please join us!

Planet Mercury: The Problem Child of the Solar System 

Wednesday 4 June 2025, 1.00pm-2.00pm, Attenborough 208

Jack Wright, Spaceflight Project Officer, The Open University

Mercury is a planet of extremes, being the smallest, densest, innermost, and least explored world in the inner Solar System. Its surface is replete with evidence of volatile-driven activities, which is hard to reconcile with formation models that invoke major heating events, such as giant impacts, to explain the planet’s large core. 

In this talk, Jack will introduce Mercury’s unusual geology and explain some of his research that seeks to address fundamental questions about this problematic planet, which he will continue at Leicester as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellow. 

Jack will also mention my involvement in the BepiColombo mission, featuring the Leicester-built Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer, set to arrive at Mercury toward the end of his fellowship.