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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Permanently shadowed, radar-bright regions on Mercury

Permanently shadowed, radar-bright regions on Mercury
Permanently shadowed, radar-bright regions on Mercury Shown in red are areas of Mercury’s north polar region that are in shadow in all images acquired by MESSENGER to date. The polar deposits imaged by Earth-based radar are in yellow. This comparison indicates that all of the polar deposits imaged by Earth-based radar are located in areas of persistent shadow as documented by MESSENGER images. NASA / JHUAPL / CIW / NAIC, Arecibo Observatory

Updated from N. L. Chabot et al., Journal of Geophysical Research, 117, doi: 10.1029/2012JE004172 (2012).