Letâs see:
The surface temperature of Mercury ranges from 100 to 700 K (â173 to 427 °C; â280 to 800 °F)[18] at the most extreme places: 0°N, 0°W, or 180°W. It never rises above 180 K at the poles,[12] due to the absence of an atmosphere and a steep temperature gradient between the equator and the poles. The subsolar point reaches about 700 K during perihelion (0°W or 180°W), but only 550 K at aphelion (90° or 270°W).[65] On the dark side of the planet, temperatures average 110 K.[12][66] The intensity of sunlight on Mercuryâs surface ranges between 4.59 and 10.61 times the solar constant (1,370 W¡mâ2).[67]
Although the daylight temperature at the surface of Mercury is generally extremely high, observations strongly suggest that ice (frozen water) exists on Mercury. The floors of deep craters at the poles are never exposed to direct sunlight, and temperatures there remain below 102 K; far lower than the global average.[68] Water ice strongly reflects radar, and observations by the 70-meter Goldstone Solar System Radar and the VLA in the early 1990s revealed that there are patches of high radar reflection near the poles.[69] Although ice was not the only possible cause of these reflective regions, astronomers think it was the most likely.[70]
The icy regions are estimated to contain about 1014â1015 kg of ice,[71] and may be covered by a layer of regolith that inhibits sublimation.[72] By comparison, the Antarctic ice sheet on Earth has a mass of about 4Ă1018 kg, and Marsâs south polar cap contains about 1016 kg of water.[71] The origin of the ice on Mercury is not yet known, but the two most likely sources are from outgassing of water from the planetâs interior or deposition by impacts of comets.[71]
Mercury is too small and hot for its gravity to retain any significant atmosphere over long periods of time; it does have a tenuous surface-bounded exosphere[73] containing hydrogen, helium, oxygen, sodium, calcium, potassium and others at a surface pressure of less than approximately 0.5 nPa (0.005 picobars).[14] This exosphere is not stableâatoms are continuously lost and replenished from a variety of sources. Hydrogen atoms and helium atoms probably come from the solar wind, diffusing into Mercuryâs magnetosphere before later escaping back into space. Radioactive decay of elements within Mercuryâs crust is another source of helium, as well as sodium and potassium. MESSENGER found high proportions of calcium, helium, hydroxide, magnesium, oxygen, potassium, silicon and sodium. Water vapor is present, released by a combination of processes such as: comets striking its surface, sputtering creating water out of hydrogen from the solar wind and oxygen from rock, and sublimation from reservoirs of water ice in the permanently shadowed polar craters. The detection of high amounts of water-related ions like O+, OHâ, and H3O+ was a surprise.[74][75] Because of the quantities of these ions that were detected in Mercuryâs space environment, scientists surmise that these molecules were blasted from the surface or exosphere by the solar wind.[76][77]
On November 29, 2012, NASA confirmed that images from MESSENGER had detected that craters at the north pole contained water ice. MESSENGER 's principal investigator Sean Solomon is quoted in The New York Times estimating the volume of the ice to be large enough to âencase Washington, D.C., in a frozen block two and a half miles deepâ.[64][c]
(So, Mercury is both cold and hot because its atmosphere is so thin, almost none. So the ice at the poles cannot melt or evaporate.)