New NASA temperature maps provide ‘whole new way of seeing the moon’
“Most notable are the measurements of extremely cold temperatures within the permanently shadowed regions of large polar impact craters in the south polar region,” said David Paige, Diviner’s principal investigator and a UCLA professor of planetary science. “Diviner has recorded minimum daytime brightness temperatures in portions of these craters of less than -397 degrees Fahrenheit. These super-cold brightness temperatures are, to our knowledge, among the lowest that have been measured anywhere in the solar system, including the surface of Pluto.”
“After decades of speculation, Diviner has given us the first confirmation that these strange, permanently dark and extremely cold places actually exist on our moon,” said science team member Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “Their presence greatly increases the likelihood that water or other compounds are frozen there. Diviner has lived up to its name.”