peak of eternal light on the Moon -- AMIGA Astronomy

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Subject: peak of eternal light on the Moon

Author:
Mikebuzz

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Date Posted: 18:42:09 03/22/04 Mon

There is a "peak of eternal light" on the Moon ; regions from which the Sun never sets...

A team led by Dr Ben Bussey of Johns Hopkins University in the US looked at images of the Moon's poles taken by .

Four areas on the rim of Peary, a 73k-wide crater, appear to stay light for the entire Moon day, according to data from the 1994 Clementine lunar spacecraft

The Moon's rotational axis is tilted about 1.5 degrees relative to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun.

As a consequence, the Moon has small but detectable seasons, and dramatic lighting conditions at its poles.

The low axial tilt means there are crater floors and the poleward-facing sides of crater walls that never see the Sun at all. And are there mountains or the tops of crater rims that always protrude into the sunlight and lit permanently.

Unlike the lunar south pole, which has no mountains of eternal light, the north pole has peaks that are constantly illuminated - at least during the lunar summer.

However, the continuous illumination could be a seasonal effect that disappears in winter (for which there is no data).

Finding a permanently illuminated peak makes the lunar north pole an enticing region for exploration and for the site of the first Moonbase.

A location near the north pole that was constantly lit would have a relatively benign environment. Daily temperature changes would be only about 20 degrees Celsius, making lunar base operations easier than at the lunar equator where the temperature can change by 250 degrees daily.

Extensive regions are in permanent shadow. These regions may harbour ground ice.

Trapped water-ice in permanently shadowed areas at the lunar poles is consistent with data from the Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions and radar measurements made with the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico...

Astronomers know that concentrations of hydrogen are associated with permanently shadowed craters. However, they do not know the total concentration of hydrogen or whether or not the hydrogen is in water-ice or some other form.

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