NEW IMAGES SHED LIGHT ON MERCURY’S NORTH POLE

New photos of Mercury’s mysterious north pole reveal a glimpse of the permanently dark, frigid craters that may hold ice dozens of metres thick, even though Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. At night, Mercury’s temperatures can plunge to -180 degrees Celsius. The planet’s north pole is pockmarked by craters whose bottoms are always in shadow. These crater bottoms likely contain thick deposits of water ice. The new images of these cold craters come courtesy of BepiColombo, a joint mission...