The coldest craters in the solar system: new photos of Mercury captured from an altitude of less than 300 kilometers have emerged.

As it approached, the probe photographed Mercury.

On January 8, 2025, the BepiColombo spacecraft, part of a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan's JAXA, flew just 295 kilometers above the surface of Mercury, capturing several images. ESA scientists described these images as stunning and presented them to the public on January 9 during a specially convened press conference.

Having come close to the first planet from the Sun in the Solar System, BepiColombo completed its sixth gravitational maneuver, aiming to return to Mercury in late 2026 and deploy two other probes onboard – the European Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter – into orbit around the planet. They will begin to closely study the enigmatic planet in 2027 from an unprecedentedly close distance.

Crater on Mercury, which may contain ice.

Meanwhile, experts have confidently stated that the craters photographed by BepiColombo during its flyby over Mercury's North Pole contain water. This water is frozen, which seems remarkably surprising for a planet that is the closest to the Sun, at an average distance of 58 million kilometers. At midday, temperatures on Mercury's surface can soar to 430 degrees Celsius.

However, as scientists explain, the edges of the gigantic polar craters captured in the images create a constant shadow and, consequently, cold. This makes them some of the darkest and coldest places in the Solar System.

Thus, ice could very well be preserved within the craters. Upcoming observations should confirm this. Although confirmation might emerge sooner through a more thorough analysis of the images obtained now.

FOR REFERENCE

The largest comet in the Universe

The radius of Mercury is 2,500 kilometers. The planet follows a highly elliptical orbit, sometimes coming as close as 45.9 million kilometers to the Sun and at other times moving away to 69.7 million kilometers.

Mercury is approximately twice as close to the Sun as Earth.

Periodically, when it gets particularly close to the star, Mercury releases a tail. Like a comet. It is photographed. The tail, as expected, stretches away from the Sun.

Sometimes Mercury resembles a comet – releasing an incredibly long tail.

Scientists first suspected that the innermost planet from the Sun might have a tail back in the 1980s, but it wasn't until 2001 that they actually observed it. The existence of the tail was confirmed by the MESSENGER spacecraft (NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging), which approached Mercury in 2008.

The tail, as it has now become clear, forms under the pressure of the solar wind, which creates a so-called exosphere made up of hydrogen, sodium, and calcium. The stronger the solar wind, the longer and denser the tail becomes. The wind intensifies as the Sun becomes more active, entering another cycle of its activity.

Mercury is hot but has weak gravity. It possesses a magnetic field, but it is only one percent of Earth's. As a result, molecules do not cling well to the surface; they are literally blown away – sometimes up to a million kilometers.

The tail of Mercury primarily glows due to sodium. Thanks to its bright yellow luminescence, amateur astronomers can even photograph Mercury's comet-like tail, given the right skill, of course.

It is possible that the current mission will confirm the most exciting hypothesis – that Mercury is rich in diamonds.

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