NASA confirms presence of water ice on Earth's moon

[News_Editor]

NASA confirms presence of water ice on Earth's moon

2010-10-22 07:47:41 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Thursday confirmed the presence of water ice on the Earth's moon as well as its water cycle after nearly a year since the discovery of water molecules on the natural satellite.

"NASA has convincingly confirmed the presence of water ice and characterized its patchy distribution in permanently shadowed regions of the moon," said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA.

The new data was uncovered by NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LRCROSS) and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). It is a step forward by NASA to a better understanding of the solar system, its resources, origin, evolution and future.

The two missions found evidence that the lunar soil within shadowy craters is rich in useful materials, and that the moon has a water cycle and is chemically active. Scientists discovered that water was present in the form of mostly pure ice crystals in some places.

On October 9, 2009, both LCROSS and a companion rocket impacted the moon's Cabeus crater lifting a plume of material that might have not been exposed to sunlight for billions of years. The plume traveled nearly 10 miles above the rim of Cabeus and instruments aboard LCROSS and LRO examined the debris and vapor clouds.

After the twin impacts, grains of mostly pure water ice were in the plume meaning that water ice was somehow delivered to the moon in the past or a chemical process caused ice to accumulate in large quantities.

"The diversity and abundance of certain materials called volatiles in the plume, suggest a variety of sources, like comets and asteroids, and an active water cycle within the lunar shadows," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist.

Volatiles are compounds that freeze and are trapped in the cold lunar craters and vaporize when warmed by the sun. LCROSS and LRO determined that 20 percent of the materials in the plume were volatiles, including methane, ammonia, hydrogen gas, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

In addition, relatively large amounts of light metals like sodium, mercury and silver were discovered. Scientists believe that the water and volatiles could have been left by a come impact. However, the volatile chemicals are also evidence of a cycle in which water ice reacts with lunar soil grains.

The proportion of volatiles to water in the lunar soil indicates a process called "cold grain chemistry" is taking place. This process could take hundreds of thousands of years and may occur in asteroids; the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, including Europa and Enceladus; Mars' moons; interstellar dust grains floating around other stars and the polar regions of Mercury.

With this knowledge of the moon's water cycle and processes, future mission planners could better determine locations with easily-accessible water. The existence of mostly pure water ice could mean future human explorers won't have to retrieve the water out of the soil.

In addition, an abundant presence of hydrogen gas, ammonia and methane could be exploited to produce fuel.

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