Hidden areas of the Moon’s south pole finally revealed

2023-09-20 13:51:53

In a joint effort, the American and South Korean space agencies successfully photographed the Moon’s south pole using the LRO and Danuri probes. Flying over the Shakleton crater, the two devices offer researchers a detailed snapshot of the region.

In the heart of the desolate valleys of the Moon’s south pole, the protruding ridges of Shakleton crater rise to a diameter of 21 kilometers. By flying over this region of our natural satellite, the probes Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Danuri were thus able to photograph the vast expanse in detail. NASA and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (Kari, Korean Aerospace Research Institute) published the photo on the American agency’s website on September 19.

The teamwork of the American and Korean probes

Since its launch in 2009, LRO has accustomed us to particularly sumptuous photographs of the lunar surface. But the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) equipping the probe, whose technology dates from the previous decade, struggles to treat the darkest areas of the Moon. Enter Danuri, launched in 2022 and bringing on board the ShadowCam.

Thanks to the sensitivity of its sensors, almost 200 times greater than that of LROC, ShadowCam is capable of photographing regions of the Moon that were previously invisible because they were too dark. The counterpart of this advantage? The instrument cannot take pictures of areas illuminated by sunlight. The already dazzling whiteness of the Moon saturates the images, making them unreadable for space agency engineers on Earth. But by combining the photographs acquired by LRO and Danuri, we obtain nuanced photos allowing us to discern both the illuminated regions and those frozen in darkness.

For researchers, this is a significant advantage: the south pole of the Moon is revealed in more detail, offering visual clues concerning its topography. Scientists continue to try to determine whether ice blocks remain on the satellite’s poles, 300,000 kilometers from Earth’s atmosphere.

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