SOFIA Map of Water Near the Moon's South Pole
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- Visualizations by:
- Ernie Wright
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- Written by:
- Anashe Bandari
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- Scientific consulting by:
- William Reach
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- Produced by:
- Kayvon E. Sharghi
- View full credits
A study using the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has assembled the first detailed, wide-area map of water distribution on the Moon. The map covers a region on the eastern side of the Earth-facing hemisphere of the Moon from about 60°S latitude to the South Pole. The map shows higher concentrations of water on the shady poleward sides of craters and peaks far from the South Pole.
The media on this page show a visualization of the Moon as it appeared on the date of the SOFIA observations (February 17, 2022), overlaid with the water concentration map. Combining the map with an accurately illuminated model of the lunar terrain clearly shows the correspondence between the water concentration and the shadowed areas of the surface. Blue areas on the map indicate places that returned a stronger water signature in the 6.1μm band as detected by SOFIA's FORCAST short-wavelength infrared camera. The movies are provided in both landscape and portrait aspect ratios, with and without the color key, along with the rendered animation frames, stills, and the color key as a separate element.
The virtual camera flies toward the Moon, visualized as it appeared on February 17, 2022, then scans south over the area of the SOFIA observations, shown in shades of blue (stronger water signal) and brown. This is the animation as rendered, without the color key. The frames are in high dynamic range OpenEXR format with alpha.
The virtual camera flies toward the Moon, visualized as it appeared on February 17, 2022, then scans south over the area of the SOFIA observations, shown in shades of blue (stronger water signal) and brown. This is an alternate rendering, without the color key and South Pole grid. The frames are in high dynamic range OpenEXR format with alpha.
The virtual camera flies toward the Moon, visualized as it appeared on February 17, 2022, then scans south over the area of the SOFIA observations, shown in shades of blue (stronger water signal) and brown. Includes a color key and latitude-longitude grid near the South Pole. This is a vertical aspect ratio version.
The virtual camera flies toward the Moon, visualized as it appeared on February 17, 2022, then scans south over the area of the SOFIA observations, shown in shades of blue (stronger water signal) and brown. This is the animation as rendered, without the color key. The frames are in high dynamic range OpenEXR format with alpha. This is a vertical aspect ratio version.
The virtual camera flies toward the Moon, visualized as it appeared on February 17, 2022, then scans south over the area of the SOFIA observations, shown in shades of blue (stronger water signal) and brown. This is an alternate rendering, without the color key and South Pole grid. The frames are in high dynamic range OpenEXR format with alpha. This is a vertical aspect ratio version.
For More Information
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
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Visualizer
- Ernie Wright (USRA) [Lead]
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Writer
- Anashe Bandari (Universities Space Research Association (USRA)) [Lead]
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Scientists
- William Reach (Universites Space Research Association (USRA)) [Lead]
- Casey Honniball (USRA)
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Producers
- Kayvon E. Sharghi (ARC-DO) [Lead]
- Abby Tabor (Wyle Labs)
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Technical support
- Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
- Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Papers
This visualization is based on the following papers:Datasets used in this visualization
LRO DEM (A.K.A. Digital Elevation Map) (Collected with the LOLA sensor)
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LROC WAC Color Mosaic (A.K.A. Natural Color Hapke Normalized WAC Mosaic) (Collected with the LRO Camera sensor)
This natural-color global mosaic is based on the 'Hapke normalized' mosaic from LRO's wide-angle camera. The data has been gamma corrected, white balanced, and range adjusted to more closely match human vision.
See more visualizations using this data setNote: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.
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ID: 4868 Visualization
The Moon's Clavius Crater
Read moreA slow flyover of Clavius crater, looking south. || Clavius is among the largest and oldest craters on the Moon. Located in the far southern area of the Moon's near side, it's visible in binoculars and small telescopes between first and third quarter phases. It's perhaps best known as the site of the fictional Moon base in Stanley Kubrick's movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's also now the site of a somewhat surprising discovery of water on the Moon.The discovery was published in the October 26, 2020 edition of Nature Astronomy. Lead author Casey Honniball, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and her co-authors used the airborne infrared telescope SOFIA to detect the characteristic signature of water molecules in the floor of Clavius. Molecules containing hydrogen and oxygen have been found in many previous observations, and these strongly implied the presence of water, but the SOFIA observations found emissions at a wavelength specific to H2O (water) and not hydroxyl (OH) compounds.At 100 to 400 parts per million of water, Clavius is still much drier than the driest deserts on Earth. But the crater is far from the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles, where water ice can be protected from evaporating, so the presence of any amount of water there is a puzzle that awaits explanation.The visualization on this page is a slow flyover of Clavius as it might be seen by astronauts in orbit. It uses surface color and elevation maps of the Moon generated from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data. ||
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