Category: News and Views
T
he moon no longer seems to be a dry, barren world. U.S. scientists Friday
announced
that they have confirmed the presence of water in a crater that lies near
the lunar
south pole.
“Yes, indeed, we found water and we didn't just find a little bit – we found
a significant
amount,” said Anthony Colaprete, the lead scientist overseeing the mission
for the
U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The announcement is certainly good news for those who hope to see human
colonists
on the moon some day. Water would be an essential requirement for long-term
habitation.
The scientists made the discovery by analyzing data from a rocket body and
probe,
called the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, that were
deliberately
smashed into the moon last month.
At the time of the twin impacts, the mission looked like a public-relations
dud because
it didn't produce a cloud of debris clearly visible from Earth. However,
NASA scientists
had insisted they were able to gather ample information from the LCROSS
probe, which
watched the first rocket body slam into the moon before it hit the surface,
too.
After weeks of assessing the data, the NASA team called a news conference
Friday
to announce the preliminary results.
The rocket impact produced a new crater between 20 and 30 meters across, Dr.
Colaprete
said. The plumb of dust kicked up by the crash contained the equivalent of
“a dozen,
two-gallon buckets worth of water,” he added.
“It would be water you could drink – it's water like any other water.”
Dr. Colaprete acknowledged that a lot more work – and likely more lunar
missions
– will be needed to produce an accurate estimate of how much water is on the
moon.
Even so, one thing is certain – the LCROSS mission has already helped
overturn traditional
thinking about Earth's pock-marked natural satellite.
“This is not your father's moon,” said Gregory Delory of the University of
California
at Berkeley. “Rather than a dead and unchanging world, it could in fact be a
very
dynamic and interesting one.”
In recent years, probes orbiting the moon have provided tantalizing clues
that the
moon's surface contains traces of hydrogen – a key component of water.
Some scientists have speculated that vast stores of frozen water could exist
near
the lunar poles, where the sun doesn't rise much above the horizon. Some
crater bottoms
are in perpetual darkness and the temperature dips to minus 238, potentially
preserving
water ice in a permanent deep freeze.
But other scientists had doubted the existence of lunar water.
“Now we know that water is there, thanks to LCROSS. We can begin in earnest
to go
to the next set of questions,” Dr. Delory said.
For one thing, the experts don't know the origin of the water. It might have
come
from comets – dirty cosmic snowballs – that have rained down on the moon
over billions
of years. Or, it might have been produced by solar wind, which is basically
an ionized
gas streaming off the sun and composed mostly of hydrogen. Reactions on the
surface
of the moon could have merged the hydrogen with oxygen to produced trace
amounts
of water.
“Other intriguing possibility is that the moon itself may be the source of
the water
through internal activity,” speculated Dr. Delory.
The results of the LCROSS mission come at a time when the Obama
administration is
reviewing the United States' long-term space plans. Some space enthusiasts
hope lunar
water could help reduce the cost of moon colonies as well as deep-space
exploration.
Water can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen to create rocket fuel.
But other experts caution that it would likely be extremely pricey to
separate the
water from lunar soil. Although the moon might contain “significant amounts”
of water,
it is still drier than most deserts on Earth, Dr. Colaprete acknowledged.
Bring it to Earth and pour it where there is drout.
it sounds cool