Planetary Science Seminar fall-2019

Permanently shadowed craters near the poles of Mercury and the Moon harbor water ice inside cold-traps, which are among the coldest places in the solar system. Despite their similar thermal environments, past telescopic and remote sensing observations have found cold-traps on Mercury contain significantly more ice than cold-traps on the Moon. We use remote sensing techniques coupled with models to investigate this surprising difference and probe the physical properties of the ice to learn about its potential origin.