THE GEOLOGY OF THE SOUTH POLE OF THE MOON AND AGE OF SHACKLETON CRATER. Paul
The south pole of the Moon is located in the rugged, heavily cratered terrain of the southern highlands [1]. Because the lunar spin axis is oriented about 1.5º from a normal to the ecliptic, sunlight is always at low incidence at the poles, creating both a unique environment and some difficulty in g...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.610.2626 http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2008/pdf/1626.pdf |
| Summary: | The south pole of the Moon is located in the rugged, heavily cratered terrain of the southern highlands [1]. Because the lunar spin axis is oriented about 1.5º from a normal to the ecliptic, sunlight is always at low incidence at the poles, creating both a unique environment and some difficulty in geological interpretation of the region. Newly obtained ra-dar images of the lunar south pole permit us to observe sev-eral areas of this region that are in permanent sun shadow [2]. Together with earlier data for the poles from the orbital Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions [3-5], we now have an abundance of information on the geology and envi-ronment of the south pole. Geological setting of the south pole. The dominant feature in the south polar region is the enormous South Pole-Aitken basin, one of the largest and oldest impact basins on the |
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