The new ShadowCam instrument has sent its first image back from lunar orbit, showing the inside of an area of the moon that never gets any direct sunlight
This first image didn’t reveal any surprises, but it demonstrated that the camera works just as well as the researchers were hoping, saysat Arizona State University, ShadowCam’s principal investigator. Near the top of the image is the trail worn by a boulder about five metres across as it rolled down the sloped wall of the crater.
ShadowCam is 200 times more sensitive than the camera that was previously used to observe PSRs, which circles the moon aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. That high sensitivity allows it to peer into these dark areas using only the small amount of sunlight that bounces off the surrounding landscape.
The portion of Shackleton crater in this image is warm compared with other PSRs, regularly rising above the -163°C temperature that is required to keep water ice stable on the lunar surface. But other, colder PSRs – and maybe even colder regions of the same crater – are thought to host ice or frost, which may be useful for future missions to the moon.
Over the course of the next year or so, ShadowCam is expected to observe all of the known PSRs, Robinson says. The hunt is on fornewsletter for a voyage across the galaxy and beyond, every Friday
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