New NASA Temperature Maps Provide 'Whole New Way Of Seeing The Moon'

Courtesy of Mary Kate Palmiotto:

NASA is planning a mission to map the moon and its temperatures with the help of the unmanned Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and one of the instruments aboard, the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment. Diviner is tracking the temperatures of the lunar surface while the LRO, launched on June 18th, orbits some 31 miles above the moon, making the first global survey on the moon involving temperature. Getting a comprehensive range of local lunar times will take the orbiting LRO about six month to complete even though it only takes about two hours for the LRO to orbit the moon.

Diviner has been mapping the moon continuously during the LRO commissioning phase. Since being activated on July 5, Diviner has obtained more than 8 billion calibrated measurements and has mapped almost 50 percent of the surface area of the moon. These measurements include scans of the visible edge of the moon and infrared scans of the Earth from the moon’s orbit.

Diviner is operated by the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and will map the entire surface of the moon creating the first pictures of the temperatures on the moon along with its changing seasons. The north and south polar regions have shown the most detailed temperature findings and the craters in the south polar region have shown extremely cold temperature measurements. Diviner has recorded one of the lowest temperatures in our solar system in these craters, that being minus 397 degrees Fahrenheit during daytime brightness.

Science team member Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California has stated that after years of speculation, Diviner has lived up to its rightful name and “has given us the first confirmation that these strange, permanently dark and extremely cold places actually exist on our moon.” The temperatures are so low in these super cold regions that it is able to cold-trap water ice and other compounds for extended periods of time. For 50 years, these cold-trap areas had been predicted, but now Diviner is able to actually provide detailed data regarding their temperatures and spatial distribution.

Evidence has shown that the moon’s surface temperature varies greatly, going from one extreme to another. During the day, the surface temperature can get hotter than boiling water, while at night, surface temperatures are almost as cold as liquid oxygen. Both daytime and nighttime temperatures at the poles are influenced by the local topography and differ greatly from temperatures at the equator and mid-latitudes.

It is important for future human explorers to know the variations of the moon’s temperature. If we plan on visiting the moon for any length of time, we need to know if the moon’s surface offers us a viable habitat. Maps generated by Diviner will be helpful in determining areas that may be too dangerous for moon landings and the mapping being done by the Diviner will be of benefit to future space exploration.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090917191609.htm