Mapping Water on the Lunar Surface

(a) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Wide Angle Camera image of the southern limb of the Moon, oriented with the celestial pole at the top as appropriate for 2022 February 17, with lunar coordinate grid overlaid and an outline of the region observed with SOFIA (blue lines). (b) Color rendition of SOFIA water and continuum emission. The color image combines the 6 micron continuum surface brightness (green) and the 6 micron water feature strength (blue). The diagonal empty regions on the water image mask a partially transparent defect on the surface of the detector that leads to significantly higher noise. (c) The 6 µm continuum surface brightness in Jy/pixel. (d) The 6 micron integrated water band strength, W.

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