Wallpaper. On the Moon, NASA Probe Sees Where Sun Never Shines. Some parts of the moon haven't seen the sun in millions, and even billions, of years but an unmanned NASA spacecraft is shedding light on these lunar lands of permanent darkness. A new video from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio explains just how the agency's powerful Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is collecting data on the moon's coldest, darkest craters.
Earth's axis is titled about 23.4 degrees from vertical, meaning sunlight reaches every surface, even the north and south poles, for at least part of the year. The moon, meanwhile, is tilted just 1.6 degrees, nearly perpendicular to the direction of the sun's light. This means that there are some deep craters near the moon's poles that haven't seen the sun for over two billion years. Elevation color coding lights up the inside of the moon's Shackleton crater, a permanently shadowed region.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio 12" Moon Globe.