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Or is it just too far away to be shadowed from the photosphere of the sun?

Just wondering if some futuristic science/observation station could ever be placed there.

I know about the polar craters that are always dark. Otherwise it looks like Mercury is beyond a human visit.

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I'm afraid not. The umbral limit for Mercury will vary (as a result of Mercury's eccentric orbit) but is about 170,000 km from the planet. The Lagrange point (again it moves due to the non-circular orbit) is about $R(\mu/3)^{1/3}$, where R is the Mercury-sun distance and $\mu$ is the mass ratio. That gives a Lagrange point that is about 2500,000 km from Mercury. An order of magnitude greater.

Human exploration of Mercury is probably unlike in the foreseeable future. It's also probably not a very interesting place for humans to visit in person. Mercury is one for the robots.

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