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Topography data from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal a violent impact history on the far side of the Moon. Scientists are using LOLA data to identify and map the distribution of impact craters and basins on the lunar surface, which in turn reveals information about the age of the lunar crust and early bombardment of the Solar System. Credit: NASA/GSFC
 
 
The Lunar Far Side as Seen by the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter
The Apollo 17 Lunar Module Challenger descent stage comes into focus from the new lower 50-km mapping orbit, image width is 102 meters. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
 
 
Exploring the Apollo 17 Site
These images from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft show data for the hemisphere of the moon that faces Earth. The image on the left shows albedo, or the sunlight reflected from the surface of the moon. The image on the right shows where infrared light is absorbed in the characteristic manner that indicates the presence of water and hydroxyl molecules. That image shows that signature most strongly at the cool, high latitudes near the poles. The blue arrow indicates Goldschmidt crater, a large feldspar-rich region with a higher water and hydroxyl signature. Credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown Univ.
 
 
Water Detected at High Latitudes
These images from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft show data for the hemisphere of the moon that faces Earth. The image on the left shows albedo, or the sunlight reflected from the surface of the moon. The image on the right shows where infrared light is absorbed in the characteristic manner that indicates the presence of water and hydroxyl molecules. That image shows that signature most strongly at the cool, high latitudes near the poles. The blue arrow indicates Goldschmidt crater, a large feldspar-rich region with a higher water and hydroxyl signature. Credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown Univ.
 
 
Nearside of the Moon
Many small, fresh craters bear signatures of water and hydroxyl, which are detected as absorptions of infrared light in the range of 3 micrometers by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper. Figure A, on the left, shows feldspar-rich terrain on the side of the moon facing away from Earth. The arrows point to the location of small, fresh craters. Figure B, on the right, indicates the reflectance as a function of wavelength for craters in Figure A. The water and hydroxyl signature in these regions is seen as a characteristic dip in reflectance in the infrared light near the 3-micrometer range, a region noted with a light-blue band. The dashed line shows background soil that doesn't contain significant water or hydroxyl. Credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown Univ.
 
 
Craters and the Tell-Tale Signatures
On the left, a portion of the first image cube measured by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on board the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on Nov. 19, 2008 shows the crater Harpalus north of Mare Imbrium. The rainbow-colored panels to the top and right of each image represent the different reflected light, or spectral, signatures that underlie every point in the image. These signatures allow determination of the surface composition. The image cube on the right was measured on Feb. 5, 2009 and includes the Apollo 15 landing site adjacent to the feature Hadley Rille. Credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown Univ.
 
 
Colorful Cubes of Light
This is an early mineral map derived from the different reflected light, or spectral, signatures, measured by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on board the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. The green, purple and blue areas are covered with iron-rich lava flows. These are similar to the lava flows of Hawaii. The red and pink regions contain the mineral plagioclase. Plagioclase is one of the minerals found in granite rocks on Earth, such as the granite of Yosemite National Park. Credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown Univ.
 
 
Mineral Mapping the Moon
NASA's Cassini spacecraft observations of the moon on Aug. 19, 1999 show water and hydroxyl at all latitudes on the surface, even areas exposed to direct sunlight. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument on Cassini made the observations as the spacecraft flew by the moon. Its view was slightly south of the lunar equator. The yellow cross indicates a latitude and longitude of zero. The picture at top left shows infrared light reflected off the moon as seen by VIMS. The top right picture shows the moon as seen by Cassini's Imaging Science Sub-system (ISS) during the flyby. The image at bottom left shows temperatures of the moon derived from VIMS data. Temperatures near the equator are hotter than boiling water on Earth. The bottom center picture shows a VIMS map of water associated with minerals. At bottom right is a VIMS map of hydroxyl-bearing minerals, created by chemical reactions with minerals and glasses in the lunar soil. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS
 
 
Cassini's Look at Water on the Moon
These images show a very young lunar crater on the side of the moon that faces away from Earth, as viewed by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. On the left is an image showing brightness at shorter infrared wavelengths. On the right, the distribution of water-rich minerals (light blue) is shown around a small crater. Both water- and hydroxyl-rich materials were found to be associated with material ejected from the crater. Credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS/Brown Univ.
 
 
Water Around a Fresh Crater
These images show a lunar crater on the side of the moon that faces away from Earth, as viewed by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. On the left is an image showing infrared brightness. On the right, the abundance of water (light blue) and hydroxyl (red) is shown around a small crater. Hydroxyl-rich materials are seen as two rays emanating from the crater at the one and seven o'clock positions. Water-rich materials encircle the crater. Ray patterns such as those containing the hydroxyl usually indicate that materials have been excavated from below the surface. If so, it is possible that there are deposits of water- and hydroxyl-rich materials just below the surface of the moon. Credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS/Brown Univ.
 
 
Rays of Water and Hydroxyl
Since successfully carrying out its spectacular impact experiment at comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, the Deep Impact spacecraft has been on an extended mission, called Epoxi, which culminates in a flyby of comet Hartley 2 on November 4, 2010. En route to the second comet, the spacecraft observed the moon for calibration purposes on several occasions. In June 2009, the northern polar regions were observed and detailed measurements of light from the regions, called spectra, were collected (blue and cyan). These data unambiguously show the signature of water and hydroxyl (hashed regions). The water signature varies in strength; in particular, data acquired over the warm equator in December 2007 have a distinct but weaker signature (purple). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Maryland
 
 
Deep Impact Identifies Water on the Lunar Surface
This chart highlights observations from NASA's Deep Impact mission of the northern polar regions of the moon acquired on June 9, 2009. The image at left is a map of the moon taken by the U.S. Clementine satellite -- the rest of the images are different representations of Deep Impact data, including measurements of brightness, temperature, and strength of a signature for water and hydroxyl molecules. The water signature varies significantly across the lunar surface; the strength of the signature is not correlated with terrain type but is highly dependent on temperature. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Maryland
 
 
Water Abundance Dependent on Temperature
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