South Pole shadows 🌒 At the Moon's North and South Poles, the Sun is never more than 1.5° above or below the horizon. The resulting pattern of daylight and shadows is unlike anywhere else on the Moon — or the Earth. After zooming in on a small lunar highland area near the South Pole, this visualization recreates the illumination conditions there over a period of two lunar days, equal to two months on Earth. This visualization was created from data gathered by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. This close to the pole, the Sun doesn't rise and set. Instead, as the Moon rotates on its axis, the Sun skims the horizon, traveling a full 360° around the terrain. Mountains as far as 75 miles (120 kilometers) away cast shadows across the landscape. With the Sun at such a low angle, it can never reach the floors of some deep craters. Permanently shadowed regions are some of the locations of some of the coldest spots in the solar system, and because of that, they trap volatile chemic...