                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2022 April 10

                      Shadows at the Moon's South Pole
     Image Credit: NASA, Arizona State U., Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

   Explanation: Was this image of the Moon's surface taken with a
   microscope? No -- it's a multi-temporal illumination map made with a
   wide-angle camera. To create it, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
   spacecraft collected 1,700 images over a period of 6 lunar days (6
   Earth months), repeatedly covering an area centered on the Moon's south
   pole from different angles. The resulting images were stacked to
   produce the featured map -- representing the percentage of time each
   spot on the surface was illuminated by the Sun. Remaining convincingly
   in shadow, the floor of the 19-kilometer diameter Shackleton crater is
   seen near the map's center. The lunar south pole itself is at about 9
   o'clock on the crater's rim. Crater floors near the lunar south and
   north poles can remain in permanent shadow, while mountain tops can
   remain in nearly continuous sunlight. Useful for future outposts, the
   shadowed crater floors could offer reservoirs of water-ice, while the
   sunlit mountain tops offer good locations to collect solar power.

                       Tomorrow's picture: ISS Sunspot
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

