Friday, February 1, 2008

Moon Data


These composite images (made up of many different orbits) show the lighting conditions at the north and south poles of the Moon throughout one lunar day. (One lunar day lasts 29 Earth days.) Note that for the north pole (left image), virtually every area gets some sunlight during some part of the lunar day. However, large areas of the south pole appear to be permanently dark (black on right polar image).
It has been calculated that temperatures in these permanently dark areas may be as cold as 40 to 50 Kelvin (-230o to -220o C), only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero. Moreover, these "cold traps" have existed on the Moon for at least the last 3-4 billion years - plenty of time to accumulate water from impacting comets.







This ones shows the permanet "dark" areas or craters with the red color blobs





The Moon's axis of rotation is nearly perpendicular to the plane of its orbit around the Sun, so the Sun always appears at or near the horizon in the polar regions of the Moon. Although the plane of the Moon's orbit about the Earth is inclined about 5o, it's equator is inclined about 6.5o, resulting in a 1.5o inclination of the Moon's spin axis to its orbital plane around the Sun. This means that the Sun always appears close to the horizon at the poles of the Moon.






Hey, look at these diagrams. Now I get it. but I guess this means that the South Pole's craters have permanent darknes/cold

No comments: