Thought I would take a break from the news and politics stuff. Pretty cool photo and article.

Credit: spaceweather.com
Source Article: http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?/archives/95-Eternal-Darkness-Near-the-North-Pole.html#extended

For years, planetary scientists have speculated about places on the Moon where the sun never shines. NASA may have just found one of them. Behold the inky depths of Crater Erlanger: [see linked photo]

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) flew over the 10-km crater last week and took a look inside. It was pure shadow. Crater Erlanger is near the Moon's north pole. Because the Moon's spin axis is tilted only 1.5 degrees, sunlight cannot surmount the crater's steep rim to flood the interior.

What lies inside the darkness? An exciting possibility is frozen water. Temperatures in the dark bottom could be as low as -370 Fahrenheit, cold enough to keep ice from sublimating even in hard lunar vacuum. Ice in dark craters could be an invaluable resource for future human explorers. Just melt and drink. Or split H2O into hydrogen for rocket fuel and oxygen for breathing. Water also makes an excellent radiation shield. Two spacecraft, the LRO and India's Chandrayaan-1 probe, are pinging the crater using onboard radars to learn more about Erlanger's hidden deposits. Get the full story from Arizona State University. [see source article link above]