Talk:Peak of eternal light

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Any reason Malapert (crater) is not linked from here? Currently it looks like PELs are only on the lunar north pole. 85.164.123.89 17:44, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Why is it that the article says only at the north pole, and the referenced paper is titled The Peaks of Eternal Light on the Lunar South Pole: ...? Is there a variance in which pole is called the north pole? Gene Nygaard 22:00, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Good question. On searching the web on where the PELs are located you see much confusion. I have also seen comments that the lunar north pole is too smooth to have PELs. Would it help clarifying this if we had specific artiles on Lunar North Pole and Lunar Sourth Pole as opposed to North Pole and South Pole which are mostly focussed on terrestrial poles? 85.164.123.46 16:02, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

More north south confusion[edit]

This is weird. While the article claims 

 No similar regions of eternal light exist at the less-mountainous south pole.

which seems borrowed from a BBC article [1] Unlike the lunar south pole, which has no mountains of eternal light, the north pole has peaks that are constantly illuminated - at least during the lunar summer the same article also features a link to an article called 

 The Peaks of Eternal Light on the Lunar South Pole: How they were found and what they look like

This paper is available on the net in PDF [2]. Moreover Malapert (crater) is on the lunar south pole, the article has a link to PEL but, strangely, does not mention that in the article itself. 85.164.66.66 22:41, 12 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Eclipses[edit]

What about eclipses. The Earth must get in the way from time to time... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.59.251 (talk • contribs)

Good catch. As far as I can tell, yes, a Lunar eclipse would indeed cut off the sunlight at the Peaks of Eternal Light on the Moon. If any such peaks exist at the poles of Mercury, though, those ones are safe from shadow since Mercury doesn't have any moons of its own. Bryan 00:06, 31 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Nature article: illumination map of the north pole of the Moon, Peary crater[edit]

From: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v434/n7035/abs/434842a.html Nature 434, 842 (14 April 2005)

Images returned by the spacecraft Clementine have been used to produce a quantitative illumination map of the north pole of the Moon, revealing the percentage of time that points on the surface are illuminated during the lunar day. We have used this map to identify areas that are constantly illuminated during a lunar day in summer and which may therefore be in permanent sunlight. All are located on the northern rim of Peary crater, close to the north pole. Permanently sunlit areas represent prime locations for lunar outpost sites as they have abundant solar energy, are relatively benign thermally (when compared with equatorial regions), and are close to permanently shadowed regions that may contain water ice.

This might be a useful link in resolving the long standing issue regarding lunar north or south pole. --22:39, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Nature article: No evidence for thick deposits of ice at the lunar south pole[edit]

From: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7113/abs/nature05167.html

Here we present new 20-m resolution, 13-cm-wavelength radar images that show no evidence for concentrated deposits of water ice in Shackleton crater or elsewhere at the south pole.

Seems then the investigations cover both lunar poles. --22:42, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

What does "a.o." stand for?[edit]

In the article it reads in part starting with this version of the article by Michielkruijff on June 18 2007:

It is interesting to note that these regions themselves appear rather dark in the imagery due to a.o. the long shadows of local terrain features.

Anyone know what the "a.o." stands for? Please expand this abbreviation in the article. Thanks. WilliamKF (talk) 20:21, 12 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Amongst others? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.238.222.117 (talk) 16:58, 10 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Scientific American[edit]

the april 2010 issue of sci am features a Ron Miller graphic of this feature. Does a sci am mention qualify as a "further reading", or a maybe a reference? cant do external link, as its behind a subscription wall. its a small paragraph in the article, no new info, but still possibly important here.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 03:30, 23 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Good call re sci am article. Not only that, the accompanying article to this picture (the article presents 8 "wonders of the solar system") categorically states that the peaks have "eternal" light, thus contradicting this Wikipedia article. Quote: "Discovered in 1994 on Peary crater near the north pole, the so-called peaks of eternal light are the only known region in the solar system where the sun never sets." (c) SciAm, April 2010 issue, UK edition. Nrubdarb (talk) 10:13, 9 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The authors of the Scientific American article may have believed that, but later data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows that no points on the moon actually receive perpetual sunlight (c.f. Speyerer and Robinson, "Persistently illuminated regions at the lunar poles: Ideal sites for future exploration", Icarus 222:1, January 2013, pp. 122-136.) Geoffrey.landis (talk) 20:03, 22 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

South Pole Illumination Map[edit]

I'd like to suggest this NASA image for the article:

  • "South Pole Illumination Map", Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA, December 15, 2010, retrieved 2012-03-27

It nicely illustrates the level of illumination at the south pole averaged over a lunar orbit. Regards, RJH (talk) 20:10, 27 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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Venus[edit]

Couldn't Venus too have a peak of eternal light? It has little axial tilt and rotates very slowly. --212.186.15.191 (talk) 09:37, 18 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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