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[00:00.04]A spacecraft recently sent back

[00:03.56]some of the best close-up pictures yet

[00:07.32]of the planet Mercury's north pole.

[00:11.64]The European and Japanese robotic explorer

[00:15.56]went as close as 295 kilometers

[00:19.88]above Mercury's night side before passing directly

[00:24.96]over the planet's north pole.

[00:28.00]The European Space Agency (ESA)

[00:31.64]released images that show craters

[00:34.72]with deep shadows

[00:36.32]on our solar system's smallest planet.

[00:39.48]ESA noted that the edges,

[00:43.08]or rims, of the craters called Prokofiev,

[00:47.04]Kandinsky, Tolkien and Gordimer

[00:50.52]create permanent shadows.

[00:52.92]As a result, these unlit craters

[00:56.84]are some of the coldest places

[00:59.60]in the Solar System

[01:01.60]even though Mercury

[01:03.04]is the closest planet to the sun.

[01:07.32]Cameras also took images

[01:09.76]of neighboring volcanic plains

[01:12.48]known as Borealis Planitia.

[01:15.84]ESA noted that these are "Mercury's

[01:19.24]largest expanse of ‘smooth plains'

[01:22.76]and were formed by the widespread

[01:25.24]eruption of...lava 3.7 billion years ago."

[01:30.64]Also appearing in the images released by ESA

[01:35.08]is Mercury's largest impact crater,

[01:38.24]the Caloris Basin,

[01:40.16]which covers more than 1,500 kilometers.

[01:44.96]This was the sixth

[01:47.44]and final flyby of Mercury

[01:50.32]for the BepiColombo spacecraft

[01:53.48]since its launch in 2018.

[01:56.72]The recent move put the spacecraft on a path

[02:00.60]to enter orbit around Mercury late next year.

[02:05.16]The spacecraft holds two orbiters,

[02:08.60]one from Europe and the other from Japan,

[02:12.16]that will circle the planet's poles.

[02:15.04]In a statement on its website,

[02:18.56]ESA noted that Mercury,

[02:21.08]a small, dry planet,

[02:23.08]is "the least explored planet

[02:26.00]of the inner Solar System.

[02:28.28]Learning more about Mercury

[02:31.00]will shed light on the history

[02:33.68]of the entire Solar System."

[02:36.76]The spacecraft is named

[02:39.16]for the late Giuseppe (Bepi) Colombo,

[02:43.24]an Italian mathematician.

[02:45.72]Colombo played a part in NASA's

[02:49.08]Mariner 10 mission to Mercury in the 1970s

[02:54.04]and, 20 years later,

[02:56.60]in the Italian Space Agency's special satellite project

[03:01.04]that flew on the U.S. Space Shuttle.

[03:05.16]I'm John Russell.

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Words in This Story

shadow – v. to cast a shadow (a dark figure cast upon a surface when a body blocks the rays of a light)

crater – n. a low area or depression formed by an impact

expanse – n. a great extent or distance of something that is spread out

erupt – v. to force out or release suddenly (often lava or steam that is pent up)

shed light –idiom to expand or increase knowledge