The North Pole of Mercury

As MESSENGER sped by Mercury on January 14, 2008, the NAC of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) captured this shot looking toward Mercury's North Pole.
The surface shown in this image is from the side of Mercury not previously seen by spacecraft.
The top right of this image shows the limb of the Planet, which transitions into the Terminator on the top left of the image.
Near the Terminator, the Sun illuminates surface features at a low angle, casting long shadows and causing height differences of the surface to appear more prominent in this Region.
It is interesting to compare MESSENGER's view to the North with the image looking toward the South Pole, released on January 21. Comparing these two images, it can be seen that the terrain near the South Pole is more heavily cratered while some of the Regions near the North Pole show less cratered, smooth plains material, consistent with the general observations of the poles as made by Mariner 10.

This image was acquired about 94' after MESSENGER's closest approach to Mercury, when the spacecraft was at a distance of about 32.000 Km (such as approx. 20.000 miles).

Mission Elapsed Time (MET) of image: 108830513