Researchers from the US have scanned old photographs of the moon, and found an area that is high enough to be illuminated even when it is not facing the sun
Let's say you work at NASA and you want to establish a base on the moon. You will need a lot of sunlight to provide it with energy. Well, Houston, we have a problem. Since the same side of the moon is always facing the earth, and every month it goes from completely bright to completely dark, finding a place where there is always sunlight can be very difficult.
But researchers from the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, led by Dr. Ben Bossi, think they may have found such a place. They scanned photographs of the moon taken by the Clementine spacecraft about ten years ago, and on the northern rim of Piri Crater, near the North Pole, they located an area that is illuminated all the time, at least in the summer. Their findings were published in the journal "Nature".
Scientists have thought for a long time that it is possible that near the poles of the moon there are places that are illuminated all the time. Unlike the Earth, the Moon is tilted very slightly - only about 1.5 degrees - in relation to its axis of rotation. Thus an area near the poles that is at a high enough altitude may be illuminated even in winter, when it does not face the sun.
The rim of Piri Crater is such a high area, said Dr Bossi. It is about a kilometer and a half higher than the bottom of the crater. Since the photos were taken only in the lunar summer, it is not clear if the area is also illuminated in the winter. In any case, "this is the brightest area on the moon", Bossi said.
As mentioned, the lighted place could be suitable for building a base on the moon. "There will be an uninterrupted source of solar energy, and of course it is better than a nuclear energy source," Bossi said.
In addition to this, there is a relatively constant temperature in the area - around minus fifty degrees Celsius. On the other hand, in the equatorial region of the moon the temperature ranges from about 90 degrees to minus 150 degrees Celsius.
Courtesy of the Walla system
