Incredible pictures show best views of Mercury's scorched surface and ice-filled craters

In this heat map red represents the areas of Mercury’s surface where temperatures are up to 126C

Excerpt from express.co.uk

The detailed shots were taken by

Nasa’s Mercury Messenger spacecraft which is orbiting close to the

planet and will crash into it once it runs out of fuel.

The spacecraft will hit into Mercury’s surface on April 30 after almost four years exploring the planet closest to the Sun.

The images were revealed at the 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in Texas.

Dr

Nancy Chabot, the instrument scientist for Messenger’s Mercury Dual

Imaging System, said: “We’re seeing into these craters that don’t see

the Sun, at higher resolution than was ever possible before.”

One shot taken by Messenger shows deep craters on the face of Mercury.

The planet’s lack of atmosphere means any space debris that hits the planet leaves large craters.

NASA

These are so deep that sunlight does not penetrate all the way down.

Researchers have suggested that would allow ice carried by asteroids to remain there without melting.

While

another image taken from Mercury’s north polar region shows a heat map

of the surface where red represents temperatures up to 126C.

In the shot the vast majority of the planet’s surface is red which shows its scorchingly hot surface temperatures.

Sean

Solomon, a principal investigator for the mission, added: “We’re able

to see at close range portions of the planet we haven’t seen in such

detail before.”

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Incredible pictures show best views of Mercury's scorched surface and ice-filled craters