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MESSENGER Mission News
November 26, 2012
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/

NASA Hosts Nov. 29 News Conference about Mercury Polar Regions

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Paulette Campbell
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
240-228-6792
paulette.campbell@jhuapl.edu

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-219

NASA HOSTS NOV. 29 NEWS CONFERENCE ABOUT MERCURY POLAR REGIONS

WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Nov, 29, to reveal new observations from the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury. The briefing will be held in the NASA Headquarters auditorium, located at 300 E St. SW in Washington.

Science Journal has embargoed details until 2 p.m. on Nov. 29. The news conference will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging, or MESSENGER spacecraft has been studying Mercury in unprecedented detail since its historic arrival there in March 2011.

The news conference participants are:

Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington

Sean Solomon, MESSENGER Principal Investigator, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, N.Y.

David Lawrence, MESSENGER Participating Scientist, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.

Gregory Neumann, Mercury Laser Altimeter Instrument Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

David Paige, MESSENGER Participating Scientist, University of California, Los Angeles

Journalists may attend the briefing in-person, ask questions from participating NASA locations and join by phone or via Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA.

The figures, images and animations shown during the press conference will be available online at http://messenger/news_room/presscon12.html at 2 p.m. EST on Nov. 29.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about NASA's MESSENGER mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/messenger

-end-

MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) is a NASA-sponsored scientific investigation of the planet Mercury and the first space mission designed to orbit the planet closest to the Sun. The MESSENGER spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and entered orbit about Mercury on March 17, 2011 (March 18, 2011 UTC), to begin a yearlong study of its target planet. MESSENGER's extended mission began on March 18, 2012. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, the director of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, leads the mission as Principal Investigator. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and operates the MESSENGER spacecraft and manages this Discovery-class mission for NASA.

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