Nighttime Temperatures at the Moon’s North Pole

This image shows nighttime temperatures at the Moon’s north pole as measured by the Diviner instrument on board NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft.

Areas colored blue and purple represent colder temperatures, while areas colored orange and red represent warmer temperatures. At any given point in the Moon’s orbit, half of the Moon is in daylight, while half of the Moon is in darkness. At the poles, we might expect that half of the image would be much hotter than the other.