Chapter 1538: Shackleton Crater

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Chapter 1538 Shackleton Crater

Since this basin is very large, it has a diameter of 2000 kilometers and a depth of 12 kilometers. In this case, it looks like someone deliberately dug a big hole in Antarctica from a high altitude.

Feifei looked at the big hole on the monitor, and he was also very happy. After all, what he wanted to see was this Aitken Basin.

‘Dad, now it seems that we can only appreciate the Aite Basin at this height. If we fly down, we won't be able to see anything. ’ Feifei thought, since the Aitken Basin is completely dark, then their flying saucer spacecraft will not be able to see anything when flying into this basin.

After hearing Feifei's words, Zhao Zhongyao said again,'If you talk about this Aitken Basin, there is really nothing to see. However, in this basin, there is also a relatively large impact crater, which is quite beautiful. '

'ah! Inside this basin, there is also an impact crater. What does that impact crater have to do with this basin? ’ Feifei said again.

'This crater has nothing to do with the Great Basin itself. The Aitken Basin is a very old, huge impact crater. Probably more than three billion years ago, a huge asteroid collided with the moon.

The impact craters in this basin are relatively young. But when it was produced, we will not know until we probe below. Zhao Zhongyao said so.

After hearing what his father said, Feifei said, 'Then let's go and have a look! I wonder what that impact crater actually looked like. '

‘Don’t worry, let me tell you about this impact crater! 'Zhao Zhongyao feels that it is better to tell his son about this impact crater first. This will allow Feifei to have a general understanding of the impact crater.

‘Okay, let’s listen to Dad’s talk about this impact crater first! ’ At this moment, Feifei looked at Dad again and said.

'Okay, let me tell you about this Antarctic impact crater. The crater is located in the Aitken Basin, and the striking craters around the ring include Shoemaker Crater, Haworth Crater, De Gerash Crater, Sverdrup Crater, Slater Crater, Fu Stinney Crater; and slightly further away, on the eastern half of the lunar front, are named after two early Antarctic explorers—Amundsen and Scott.

Shackleton Crater is 20.92 kilometers in diameter and 4.2 kilometers deep. The Moon's axis of rotation lies just a few kilometers from the center in Shackleton Crater. From the earth, only the edge of the Shackleton crater, which is located on rough and rugged highlands, can only be seen. From a viewing angle of -90°, the slope of the outer wall of the crater is about 1.5°.

Since the orbit of the moon is only inclined by 5° to the ecliptic, the interior of the crater is in permanent darkness, but the wall peaks of the crater mouth are almost continuously illuminated by sunlight, and the time exposed to the sun is about 10% of the total lunar orbit period. 80-90% of that. The continuously illuminated mountains are also known as Everday Peaks, a title that has existed since the twentieth century.

The Japanese Moon Goddess probe used the reflection of the crater wall to image the shadow area in the crater. The interior of the crater is composed of a uniform inner wall with a slope of 30° and a crater bottom with a diameter of 6.6 kilometers. There are a small number of small craters with a diameter of no more than several hundred meters.

The bottom of the pit is covered with a 300-400-meter-thick concave-convex mound-like structure, and the height of the central peak is about 200 meters. The permanent darkness keeps the bottom temperature of craters in the Antarctic region below 100K for a long time. In the case of Shackleton Crater, the measured average temperature is about 90K, while the bottom of the crater is as low as 88K.

Under these conditions, it is estimated that the loss rate of any water ice will be only 10-10 m/s. Any water molecules that arrived here with the impacting comet would have been frozen at or below the surface of the crater floor. Data measured by the Lunar Prospector probe show that the hydrogen content in the crater is much higher than the average level of the lunar surface, which indicates that water ice may exist. There is no exposed surface ice at the bottom of the pit.

Seen from the earth, the crater is located on the southern edge of the moon, making observation more difficult. Until the advent of orbiting spacecraft, detailed maps of the Moon's polar regions and far side had not been made. Shackleton Crater sits entirely within the vast South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system.

Exploring the basin, which is more than 12 kilometers deep, could provide useful information about the Moon's interior. The neutron spectrometer on the Lunar Prospector probe detected high concentrations of hydrogen near the Moon's north and south poles, including in Shackleton Crater. At the end of the mission in July 1999, the probe crashed near Shoemaker crater, hoping that Earth-based telescopes would detect water molecules in the dust emitted by the impact.

However, no water molecules were detected in this impact, which may indicate that the hydrogen did not exist in the form of hydrates, or that there was no ice at the impact site; or that the impact may not have been deep enough to break through the regolith and release it. release a certain amount of water molecules. From the images of the edge of the crater taken by radar and satellites on the earth, its appearance is relatively complete, very much like a young crater that has not been eroded by subsequent impacts.

This may mean that its inner side wall is relatively steep, which will bring inconvenience to unmanned probes visiting the moon. In addition, it is possible that the crater is self-forming, and the bottom of the crater has not yet accumulated a sufficient amount of volatiles. But the geological age of the craters around it

Both are quite long and probably contain significant hydrogen in the form of water ice.

Radar studies before and after the Lunar Prospector mission showed that the interior walls of Shackleton Crater had reflective features similar to those of some sun-exposed craters, especially around its perimeter, which appeared to have a large amount of sputter covering, This suggests that its radar reflection signature is the result of a rough surface rather than ice. This is consistent with what was previously reflected in the Clementine spacecraft's radar data.

But this explanation has not yet achieved unanimous agreement in the scientific community. Radar images at a wavelength of 13 centimeters show a lack of evidence of water ice in the crater.

We went to this Shackleton crater to detect this time, just to see if there is water ice at the bottom of the crater. Although we have carried out a series of detections on this crater on the earth before. But that is after all an indirect detection, not a direct detection. This time, we're going to take a look inside the Shackleton crater for ourselves. '

Zhao Zhongyao looked at Feifei, and then talked about this Shackleton crater again. After hearing this, Feifei became very curious about this impact crater.

‘Dad, let’s hurry over and have a look! ’ Feifei heard what his father said about the Sasselton impact crater, so he wanted to hurry over to have a look.

'Okay, then let's go! After Zhao Zhongyao told his son about this Shackleton impact crater, he drove the flying saucer to the Shackleton impact crater at the center of the South Pole.

Soon, the UFO spacecraft flew over the impact crater. The flying saucer spacecraft is now one thousand meters above the impact crater. At such a height, the overall shape of the Shackleton crater can already be seen completely.

This is a huge bowl-shaped impact crater. Surrounded by steep peaks, there is a low-lying area in the middle. Because sunlight cannot reach the low-lying area of ​​this impact crater. Therefore, the entire low-lying area has been in darkness. Now no one knows what is in this low-lying place.

Although the entire Aitken Basin is in darkness. But the rim of Shackleton's crater is indeed very bright. Because the edge of this impact crater towers over the entire Aitken Basin.

Although most of the Aitken Basin is dark. But the surroundings of this Shackleton crater are indeed extremely bright. Because the sun can shine on these fringe peaks.

In this way, from a close look, this Shackleton impact crater is really amazing. Because the entire impact crater is invisible to other places. The only place that can be seen is the edge of this impact crater, how can this not make people feel amazing.

Since sunlight travels in a straight line in space, there is no scattering phenomenon. Therefore, looking at the Shackleton crater in front of you from the surface of the moon, it feels like a phantom appearing in the void. After all, it is dark all around, only the circle of peaks is bright. This looks, of course, very miraculous.

'Dad, this crater looks amazing! ’ Feifei couldn’t help but marvel at the wonderful scene in front of him.

Tiantian and Qu Yuqian also saw the wonderful scene in front of them. They also stared wide-eyed, looking at the circular impact crater under the spaceship in amazement. Looking at the circle of bright peaks, both of them also felt very magical.

'Of course, how else would we come to see it! 'Zhao Zhongyao also said, looking at the strange scene in front of him with some surprise.

'Then let's go down there now! I really want to know what kind of magical things are in this impact crater. '

Feifei feels that since this impact crater looks very magical from a high altitude. Then there are many magical things in this impact crater.

'There must be a strange thing in a strange scene, and I also think that there must be a magical thing in this magical impact crater. 'Zhao Zhongyao also thought the same as Feifei.

‘Dad, let’s go to this impact crater to have a look! ’ Feifei was a little anxious, and wanted to go to the impact crater to have a look.

Tiantian and Qu Yuqian also looked at Zhao Zhongyao after hearing Feifei's words. I want him to quickly drive the UFO spacecraft to this magical impact crater to have a look.

But at this time, Zhao Zhongyao looked at everyone again and said, "Don't worry, we have to land the flying saucer spacecraft on an edge of the mountain to have a look." '

When Feifei heard it, he didn't understand. He looked at his father and asked, 'Dad, why did you land on the edge of the mountain? Just fly directly into the impact crater. '

‘We need to first detect when the peaks on the edge of this impact crater were formed. We want to see if this crater was formed at the same time as the Aitken crater. In other words, this impact crater is a very young impact crater. '

Zhao Zhongyao now wants to figure this out. Although they have detected this crater before, however. At that time, the formation age of this impact crater was only detected indirectly by launching detectors.

That method at the time was very inaccurate. After all, it is also very inconvenient to remotely control the probe on the earth. Samples taken with detectors are rarely generalizable. They are often some rocks collected from places where some detectors are relatively easy to collect. These rocks may not be the rocks formed when this crater hit the moon. So, now we need to collect some more rocks on this impact edge peak, and then conduct a test. Only in this way can more reliable data be obtained.

Feifei listened to his father's words, of course he agreed with his father to go to the edge of the Shackleton crater to have a look.

'Oh well! Let's go to these peaks first to see the scenery! ’ Feifei looked at Dad again and said.

At this time every day, he seemed happier. Seeing that Feifei was not happy, she said, 'Brother, it would be nice if we go to the top of the mountain first. There is sunlight on this mountain. It must be more fun than going inside the impact crater. '

'Okay, then let's go to the edge of the mountain to have a look. ’ After listening to Tiantian’s words, Feifei became very interested in these marginal peaks.

Qu Yuqian didn't say anything now. She acts as the mother of Feifei and Tiantian. She came out to play this time, purely to accompany the two children, and she never argued with the two children. As long as the two children are willing to play there, she will agree.

Zhao Zhongyao saw that the two children were willing to go to these marginal peaks first. He also drove the flying saucer to the edge of Shackleton.

Because Zhao Zhongyao was driving a flying saucer spacecraft to hover at a height of one thousand meters above the Shackleton impact crater just now. Now he only needs to drive the flying saucer spacecraft to land on one of the edge peaks of this impact crater.

So, Zhao Zhongyao drove the UFO spacecraft to this impact crater. Soon, he was driving the flying saucer spaceship and flew over an edge mountain peak.

What Zhao Zhongyao and the others saw from a high altitude just now was just what the entire impact crater looked like. It feels like the impact crater is not very big. But when they really flew to the top of a mountain in this impact crater, they realized that this impact crater is also very large.

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