The European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have released stunning photographs of Mercury’s north pole, captured by the BepiColombo spacecraft during its recent flyby. The images reveal the depths of Mercury’s iconic polar craters and feature the planet’s unique terminator, where day and night meet.
The BepiColombo spacecraft, launched in 2018, flew by Earth, Venus, and Mercury to reach its targeted speed and trajectory. Its latest pass by the north pole marked the final close-up photographs of Mercury from its M-CAM monitoring cameras.
Scientists are excited about the potential discoveries that can be made using these images. The permanent shadows cast by the polar craters are believed to host frozen water, a topic that the BepiColombo mission aims to investigate further.
The images also reveal features such as the Borealis Planitia, Mercury’s largest expanse of smooth volcanic plains, and the Caloris basin, the planet’s largest impact crater. The direction of lava flow is another question that the BepiColombo mission seeks to answer.
“We’ve gained invaluable new information about Mercury with just six flybys,” says Geraint Jones, BepiColombo’s project scientist at the ESA. “The data from this final close-up will help us unravel many of the planet’s mysteries in the coming weeks.”
Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-stunning-images-of-mercurys-north-pole-will-help-scientists-study-the-planets-mysterious-permanent-shadows-180985815