ShadowCam的沙克尔顿
(原标题: Shackleton from ShadowCam)
2023-05-05
浏览次数: 13
沙克尔顿陨石坑位于月球南极。这个直径21公里的陨石坑边缘的山峰处于阳光下，但沙克尔顿的地面却处于黑暗的永久阴影中。尽管如此，这张沙克尔顿陨石坑阴影边缘壁和底部的图像是由美国宇航局的阴影相机拍摄的，阴影相机是2022年8月发射的韩国探路者月球轨道飞行器（KPLO）上的一种仪器。“阴影相机”的灵敏度大约是月球勘测轨道飞行器窄角相机的200倍，其设计目的是对月球表面永久阴影区域进行成像。由于避免阳光直射，这些区域有望成为水冰和其他由古代彗星撞击沉积的挥发物的储存库，对未来的月球任务很有用。当然，永久阴影区域仍然被附近月球地形反射的阳光照亮。在这张细节惊人的阴影摄像机图像中，一个箭头标出了一块巨石从沙克尔顿陨石坑的壁上滚下来所留下的痕迹。图像比例显示在帧的底部。
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Shackleton crater lies at the lunar south pole. Peaks along the rim of the 21 kilometer diameter crater are in sunlight, but Shackleton's floor is in dark permanent shadow. Still, this image of the shadowed rim wall and floor of Shackleton crater was captured from NASA's ShadowCam, an instrument on board the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) launched in August 2022. About 200 times more sensitive than, for example, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's Narrow Angle Camera, ShadowCam was designed to image the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar surface. Avoiding direct sunlight, those regions are expected to be reservoirs of water-ice and other volatiles deposited by ancient cometary impacts and useful to future Moon missions. Of course, the permanently shadowed regions are still illuminated by reflections of sunlight from nearby lunar terrain. In this stunningly detailed ShadowCam image, an arrow marks the track made by a single boulder rolling down Shackleton crater's wall. The image scale is indicated at the bottom of the frame.