Map of Northern Shadows

MESSENGER's highly eccentric orbit passes high above Mercury's south pole and low over Mercury's north polar region. Consequently, unlike for the south, a single WAC image cannot view the entire north polar region. However, more than 6,000 WAC images have been acquired of Mercury's north polar region, providing views under different illumination conditions over two Mercury solar days. These images allow areas to be mapped that are in shadow in all MDIS images to date. This mosaic shows a view of Mercury's north polar region assembled from those images, with areas in shadow shown in red. A small fraction of Mercury's surface near the north pole has yet to be imaged and is the focus of a new imaging campaign in MESSENGER's newly inaugurated extended mission. Radar-bright features near Mercury's north pole, that may be water ice, collocate with shadowed areas.

Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Scale: On Mercury, 5° of latitude is approximately 213 km
Map Information: Polar stereographic projection with every 5° of latitude and 30° of longitude indicated and with 0° longitude at the bottom

Map credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington