Shadows in the South

This view from NASA MESSENGER spacecraft is an orthographic projection of Mercury south polar region, colored by an illumination map. The illumination map, created from repeated MDIS imaging, is colored on the basis of the percentage of time that a given area is sunlit. Areas appearing black in the map are regions of permanent shadow. The largest permanently shadowed region near the center of the image is within the interior of the crater Chao Meng-Fu, a location with evidence for hosting considerable amounts of water ice. Instrument: Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) Chao Meng-Fu Center Latitude: -88.4° Chao Meng-Fu Center Longitude: 203.6° E Scale: Chao Meng-Fu has a diameter of roughly 180 kilometers (112 miles) http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19416