LCROSS impact site

LCROSS impact site

On October 9, 2009, the Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) impacted a permanently shadowed region in Cabeus Crater near the Moon's South Pole. Since then, data from LRO and LCROSS have revealed the presence of volatiles, including water, in Cabeus. This LOLA image shows details of the region within Cabeus that cannot be seen in visible imagery (due to the aforementioned permanent shadow). LRO's polar orbit allows for a high density of measurements near the Moon's poles, which in turn gives us high-resolution data of the lunar polar topography.