NASA spots water ice deposits on Mercury
Space.com: NASA’s Messenger spacecraft has spotted vast deposits of water ice on Mercury, the planet closest to the sun.
Temperatures on Mercury can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit, but around the north pole, NASA found a mix of frozen water and possible organic materials.
View more photos on Space.com.
Photo shows a mosaic of MESSENGER images of Mercury’s North Polar Region. All of the larger polar deposits are located on the floors or walls of impact craters. Deposits farther from the pole are seen to be concentrated on the north-facing sides of craters. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Arecibo Observatory)
