Probing the mantle of other planets
Our goal is to apply expertise gained from studies related to Earth and to transfer these to other planets. Several objects in the solar system have been visited by multiple missions, which provide magnetic field measurements from the orbit and surface instruments.
The knowledge about planetary mantles still relies on a very limited amount of data. Only a few geochemical, geophysical and astronomical observations provide relatively trustworthy constraints on the planet’s mantle. Thus, there is a large interest for new data or/and better exploitation of existing data, in order to make a progress in deciphering physical properties of the planets and thus understanding their evolution. We pursue a project on constraining the electrical conductivity of Lunar and Martian mantles using magnetic field data from satellite missions.