Moon磗 South Pole topography. Animation zooming in on the lunar South Pole, starting with topographic colour_coding and circles of latitude and lines of longitude white and ending with a natural_colour view with sunlight left and shadows right. The initial view shows a scale bar at lower right, and the large Schrodinger Crater at upper right. The colour_coding shows the surface topography, using data gathered by the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter LOLA on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LRO spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. Surface height is colour_coded, with white areas being the highest elevation, through red, yellow, green and blue, with purple being the lowest elevation. The LRO was launched on 18th June 2009. Water ice is thought to exist in craters at the Moon磗 South Pole, sheltered from the sunlight by shadows cast by the crater walls. The crater just to the right of the South Pole in this final frame is Shackleton Crater, 21 kilometres in diameter. The two craters below it are de Gerlache Crater left and Sverdrup Crater right.