A new study published in npj Space Exploration examines one of the moon’s most mysterious environments: the permanently shadowed regions near its south pole. In these areas, sunlight rarely reaches the surface, keeping temperatures extremely low. Scientists believe water ice may have survived there for billions of years.
The research explores how impacts from space rocks affect these frozen zones. While collisions can expose buried ice and cause some of it to sublimate, they may also help preserve it. Debris from impacts can scatter icy particles into nearby cold spots or bury them beneath layers of dust and rock, protecting them from sunlight.
Using imagery from lunar missions led by NASA and advanced computer simulations, researchers mapped craters between 85 and 90 degrees south latitude. They estimate that about 24 million small craters, ranging from 1 to 20 meters wide, exist in these regions. Despite this huge number, roughly 74% of larger shadowed areas may not have been directly affected by such impacts.
The simulations also showed that larger craters, especially those wider than 200 meters, can redistribute shallow ice across the surface. Smaller impacts may gradually mix ice with lunar soil over time, creating complex underground layers. That possibility makes these dark craters more than empty holes in the ground.
These findings could guide future lunar missions. Instead of focusing only on untouched terrain, astronauts and rovers may target crater edges, buried layers, and cold traps where ice may have accumulated.
The moon’s battered surface may look dry and silent from afar, but beneath its dust, valuable reserves of frozen water may still be waiting to be discovered.
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A new study published in npj Space Exploration examines one of the moon’s most mysterious environments: the permanently shadowed regions near its south pole. In these areas, sunlight rarely reaches the surface, keeping temperatures extremely low. Scientists believe water ice may have survived there for billions of years.
