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Shackleton Crater

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An impact crater straddling the lunar south pole, about 21 km across and 4.2 km deep, named after the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. Its floor is permanently shadowed and among the coldest measured places in the Solar System, while portions of its rim are sunlit for most of the lunar year — a combination that makes the rim a leading candidate for solar-powered surface infrastructure adjacent to a cold trap. Laser altimetry from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found the floor unusually reflective, which has been read either as a modest amount of surface ice or as fresh, unweathered regolith exposed by mass wasting; the ambiguity is unresolved. ShadowCam on the Korean Danuri orbiter has since imaged the shadowed interior by earthshine and scattered light.

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Timeline

No dated observations are stored for this object. Atlas shows what was observed and when — it does not infer a history.

Connections · 1
Assembled narrative · 1

Assembled from 15 blocks · 1 evidence · 8 related

  1. Story
  2. An impact crater straddling the lunar south pole, about 21 km across and 4.2 km deep, named after the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. Its floor is permanently shadowed and among the coldest measured places in the Solar System, while portions of its rim are sunlit for most of the lunar year — a combination that makes the rim a leading candidate for solar-powered surface infrastructure adjacent to a cold trap. Laser altimetry from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found the floor unusually reflective, which has been read either as a modest amount of surface ice or as fresh, unweathered regolith exposed by mass wasting; the ambiguity is unresolved. ShadowCam on the Korean Danuri orbiter has since imaged the shadowed interior by earthshine and scattered light.
  3. Knowledge
  4. Lunar South Pole Region
  5. Shackleton Crater
  6. Connections
  7. Lunar South Pole Region
  8. Shackleton Crater
  9. Cabeus Crater
  10. Lunar Water Ice
  11. LCROSS Centaur impacts the permanently shadowed floor of Cabeus crater
  12. NASA narrows candidate south polar landing regions to nine
  13. Artemis IV first crewed lunar south pole landing (planned)
  14. Evidence
  15. Authoritative source for approved lunar feature names, centre coordinates and diameters, including Shackleton and Cabeus craters.
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Observed changes · 0

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/atlas?object=CRATER_SHACKLETON&experience=CRATER_SHACKLETON