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The European Space Agency has released images the BepiColombo mission collected during its recent flight past Mercury when it skirted only 295 km (183 mi.) above the planet's surface.
The above image, collected during the sixth BepiColombo flyby—a mission carried out with Japan’s JAXA space agency—captures the rims of the Prokofiev, Kandinsky, Tolkien and Gordimer craters that cast permanent shadows on their floors, making the shadowed spaces some of the coldest places in the Solar System, despite Mercury being the closest planet to the Sun, ESA said Jan. 9.
This image shows the volcanic plains known as Borealis Planitia formed by the widespread eruption of runny lava 3.7 billion years ago that flooded existing craters, ESA said.
This photo shows the Nathair Facula created by Mercury’s largest volcanic explosion, with a volcanic vent measuring around 40 km across.
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