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"description": "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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"description": "See [https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-sofia-discovers-water-on-sunlit-surface-of-moon/](https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-sofia-discovers-water-on-sunlit-surface-of-moon/)",
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"C. Honniball et al., Molecular water detected on the sunlit Moon by SOFIA, Nature Astronomy, 26 Oct 2020",
"C. Honniball et al., Molecular water detected on the sunlit Moon by SOFIA, Nature Astronomy, 26 Oct 2020"
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"title": "First U.S. Commercial Provider Just Days From Landing NASA Science And Technology Instruments on the Moon",
"description": "See below for associated cut b-roll for the live shots AND a pre-recorded interview with Jim Free. Click here for how you can watch the landing broadcast LIVENASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured this view of the IM-1 landing region || FINAL_CLPS_Mission_Banner_2.15.jpg (1800x720) [502.1 KB] || FINAL_CLPS_Mission_Banner_2.15_print.jpg (1024x409) [209.8 KB] || FINAL_CLPS_Mission_Banner_2.15_searchweb.png (320x180) [94.5 KB] || FINAL_CLPS_Mission_Banner_2.15_thm.png (80x40) [7.2 KB] || ",
"release_date": "2024-02-16T10:00:00-05:00",
"update_date": "2024-02-22T12:58:22.121373-05:00",
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"alt_text": "See below for associated cut b-roll for the live shots AND a pre-recorded interview with Jim Free. Click here for how you can watch the landing broadcast LIVENASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured this view of the IM-1 landing region",
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"title": "SOFIA Map of Water Near the Moon's South Pole",
"description": "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. || sofia.0314_print.jpg (1024x576) [165.4 KB] || sofia.0314_searchweb.png (320x180) [109.0 KB] || sofia.0314_thm.png (80x40) [7.4 KB] || sofia_water_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [17.5 MB] || sofia_water_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [9.3 MB] || comped (1920x1080) [0 Item(s)] || sofia_water_720p30.webm (1280x720) [3.5 MB] || sofia_water_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [3.7 MB] || sofia_water_1080p30.mp4.hwshow [185 bytes] || ",
"release_date": "2023-03-15T12:05:00-04:00",
"update_date": "2025-01-06T00:35:30.432947-05:00",
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"alt_text": "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.",
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