Shackleton from ShadowCam
Explanation:
Shackleton crater lies at
the lunar south pole.
Peaks along the 21 kilometer diameter
are in sunlight, but Shackleton's floor is in
dark permanent shadow.
Still, this image of the shadowed rim wall and floor
of Shackleton crater was
captured
from NASA's ShadowCam,
an instrument on board the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter
(KPLO) launched in August 2022.
About 200 times more sensitive than, for example, the Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter's Narrow Angle Camera,
ShadowCam was designed
image the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar surface.
Avoiding direct sunlight, those regions are expected to be
reservoirs of water-ice
and other volatiles deposited by ancient cometary impacts and
useful to future Moon missions.
Of course, the permanently shadowed regions are
still illuminated by reflections of sunlight from
nearby lunar terrain.
In this stunningly
detailed ShadowCam image,
an arrow marks the track made by a single boulder rolling down
Shackleton crater's wall.
The image scale is indicated at the bottom of the frame.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
