Project description
Decoding the mysteries of Mercury’s hidden interior
Mercury, our Solar System’s smallest and most enigmatic planet, boasts a very large metallic core and a surface rich in sulfur but poor in iron. As the joint ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission prepares to orbit the planet in late 2026, with the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the MERCI project provides the essential experimental groundwork needed to decode the coming data. The project will simulate the extreme pressure, high temperature and highly reduced conditions of Mercury’s depths in order to map iron distribution and silicon partitioning from core to crust. This research will refine thermodynamic models of the planet’s bulk composition and internal structure, ensuring that Europe’s investment in BepiColombo yields a new understanding of Mercury’s unique evolution.
Objective
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in our Solar System, having unique chemical and structural characteristics. Past NASA space missions have revealed Mercury’s exceptionally high density and surface lavas with high S and low, but measurable, Fe content. These observations point to two key features: i) an extremely reduced interior (very low oxygen fugacity) and ii) a large metallic core, where most of the Fe is hosted. Over the past decade, the integration of geophysical data and modelling with high-pressure and -temperature experiments has helped to develop a picture of Mercury’s interior, although very large uncertainties remain. BepiColombo, a new space mission led by ESA and JAXA, will begin orbiting Mercury in November 2026 and is expected to deliver new high spatiotemporal-resolution data (2027-2028). However, to fully interpret them, new experiments simulating Mercury’s interior conditions are necessary. In this context, the MERCI project aims to provide more accurate experimental and thermodynamic constraints on the redox conditions of Mercury’s interior, with implications for its bulk composition and internal structure. The main objectives are i) understanding Fe distribution from the mantle to the surface lavas and ii) to constrain Si partitioning behaviour under reducing conditions and, thus, determine mantle and core bulk compositions. MERCI will provide a fundamental reference dataset that I will use for the analysis and interpretation of the mission spectroscopic and geophysical observations. This will help to maximize BepiColombo scientific impact and return, since it was largely financed by the European Union. The MERCI timeline and multidisciplinary approach, along with the supervisor’s key scientific role in the mission and significant contributions to the topic, combined with my experimental and scientific background, will ensure a highly effective contribution to understanding Mercury’s origin and evolution.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3000 Leuven
Belgium
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.