The BepiColombo spacecraft has sent back some incredibly detailed images of Mercury’s north pole. The snapshots were collected during its closest ever flyby of our solar system’s smallest planet. You can check out the awe-inspiring images below.

Barely larger than our own Moon, Mercury orbits precariously close to the Sun at an average distance of roughly 58 million kilometres.

New images of the planet Mercury taken by a robotic spacecraft have just been released — and they show the scorched world in fascinating up-close detail.

The European and Japanese robotic explorer swooped as close as 183 miles (295 kilometers) above Mercury’s night side before passing directly over the planet’s north pole. The European Space Agency released the stunning snapshots Thursday, showing the permanently shadowed craters at the top of of our solar system’s smallest, innermost planet.

Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft captured close-up images of Mercury’s north pole during its final flyby, offering new views of the planet’s surface.

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, residing just 36 million miles from our Solar System’s center. However, not too far above its surface, the European Space Agency’s BepiColombo probe has taken the most detailed photos of the first planet ever.