Here you go, folks – the first image from last night's Mercury flyby by BepiColombo, ESA & JAXA's mission to our innermost planet.
The south pole is near the top of the image, right at the terminator between night & day, where there a some craters that never see sunlight & may even hold ice.
This is just a first teaser image – we'll be publishing some very exciting images from the closest part of the flyby later on today 🙂👍
#SpaceScience #SpaceExploration #Photography
Data hat dies geteilt.
Mark McCaughrean
Als Antwort auf Mark McCaughrean • • •To help you with your orientation, this version of the image shows the location of the south pole, marked with a yellow dot.
Given that the planet reaches temperatures of up to 450ºC in the sunlight, it's remarkable to think that there could actually be ice in those shadowed craters. But radar reflections from Arecibo do suggest that might be possible.
Mark McCaughrean
Als Antwort auf Mark McCaughrean • • •Two additional interesting points about that possible south pole ice, IIRC:
1. One thought is that it was has been delivered to Mercury relatively recently by impacts of comets on the surface;
2. It can only survive in a deeply shadowed crater because the obliquity of Mercury, i.e. the tilt of its rotation axis away from perpendicular to the ecliptic, is close to zero. That means there's no seasonal effect in the way our north & south poles have, due to Earth's tilt.
Derick Rethans
Als Antwort auf Mark McCaughrean • • •Eye
Als Antwort auf Mark McCaughrean • • •Beautiful!
I could sit and look at this image for hours...
Thomas Sturm
Als Antwort auf Mark McCaughrean • • •Roadskater, Ph.D.
Als Antwort auf Mark McCaughrean • • •Mike Morris
Als Antwort auf Mark McCaughrean • • •⏚ Antoine Chambert-Loir
Als Antwort auf Mark McCaughrean • • •