A single colossal impact may have rapidly spread water across Mercury and locked much of it into permanently shadowed polar craters — all within the span of a single Mercurian day, or 176 Earth days, according to a new study.
Being the closest planet to the sun, Mercury seems like the last place in the solar system where water ice should survive. The sun appears nearly three times larger in Mercury's sky than it does from Earth, while daytime temperatures on the scorched world can soar above 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius).
