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Image advisory: 2009-099 June NASA Scientists Bring Light to
Moon's Permanently Dark Craters PASADENA, Calif. -- A new lunar
topography map with the highest resolution of the moon's rugged
south polar region provides new information on some of our
natural satellite's darkest inhabitants -- permanently shadowed
craters. The map was created by scientists at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., who collected the data
using the Deep Space Network's Goldstone Solar System Radar
located in California's Mojave Desert. The map will help Lunar
Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission
planners as they target for an encounter with a permanently dark
crater near the lunar South Pole. "Since the beginning of time,
these lunar craters have been invisible to humanity," said
Barbara Wilson, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, Calif., and manager of the study. "Now we can see
detailed topography inside the