The Shackleton crater, at the south pole of the Moon, could contain ice, according to a group of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA) in the journal Nature . The researchers used a laser altimeter on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to illuminate the interior of the crater and obtain a light reflection map across its surface.
Although for many years scientists have suspected that Shackleton Crater could harbor water, until now no one has been able to verify it. This gigantic hole of 21 kilometers in diameter receives hardly any direct sunlight inside and its temperature is very low. Now, the new map obtained by MIT researchers has revealed that the interior of Shackleton has an intense brightness never before observed on our satellite.
"The analysis of the slopes and the roughness of the crater indicates that the walls are probably shiny because of the material that slides down them," María Zuber, one of the authors of the work, explained to EFE. "The soil for its part could possibly contain up to 20 percent water. However these are theories, our study does not confirm the presence of ice."
On the other hand, the study reveals that the crater has remained relatively unchanged since its formation , about 3,000 million years ago. In addition, the soil inside Shackleton is very uneven, containing mounds that are likely made up of materials from the meteorite that originated the crater.
