POLAR VOLATILES ON MOON AND MERCURY: SIMILARITY AND DIFFERENCE

Abstract:

Recent data from Messenger together with the earlier Arecibo radar measurements shown that practically all polar shadowed craters on Mercury should contain the valuable masses of water ice deposits. On the hand, data from LEND instrument onboard LRO detected no signatures of water ice for the majority of lunar polar craters with the permanent shadow, except for three southern craters Shoemaker, Cabeus and Haworth. Possible physical reasons are considered to explain the difference of volatiles distribution at poles of Mercury and Moon.