Philolaus Crater (Bruce Rohrlach)

Contains: Solar system body or event

Philolaus Crater

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

Philolaus Crater

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

A relatively recent young (1.1 billion years old) crater, Philolaus is around 70 km wide and located near the lunar north pole and north of Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold). The floor of Philolaus has recently been scanned by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and revealed multiple small pits believed likely to be lava tube sky-lights, collapsed entrances to once lava-filled tunnels that represent ideal cold-traps for the condensation of water vapour, and hence which may harbour water ice.

The Indian moon probe ANASA found evidence of some 600 million tonnes of water ice spread out on the bottom of craters on the lunar north pole, in pockets that are permanently shadowed from the sun due to their polar location. This lunar water ice, mixed with lunar soil, is a vital resource for oxygen and for making rocket fuel at future manned lunar bases.

In fact - due to the minimal inclination of the lunar rotational axis – both poles harbour permanently shadowed regions that contain water ice. The lunar surface (and its mineral and frozen water resources) is a gateway to the solar system, and NASA’s planned sustained presence near the South Pole, at the planned Artemis Base Camp, factors into account the water ice resources in these polar regions.

Skywatcher 8 inch/f5, TVue 5x. A night of average seeing with the moon only at ~30 degrees elevation (Melbourne, Australia).

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Distribution of astrophotographers

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
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Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

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Astrometry.net job	n/a
PixInsight job	n/a
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Philolaus Crater

Philolaus Crater

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Philolaus Crater

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