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Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by imdeceived
No one has ever said water is rare. In fact we find it just about everywhere we bother to look for it, even in interstellar space. We've suspected it on the moon for more than ten years. We've known about it on Mars for a long time. Comets, in good part, are made of it.
The trick is finding it in its liquid state. That has not yet been done. Europa may have a sea of liquid water under its ice but we do not know that for certain.
Enceladus‘ plume particles grow within the water vapour ascending through the cracks within the moon‘s ice crust.
Our moon could be similar to saturn's moon "Enceladus"?
Suchcharged water molecules can survive the cosmic travel time from the Earth upper atmosphere to the surface ofthe Moon.
Reaching the lunar surface the negativelycharged water particle meets the positively charged(from UV radiation, [7]) dust particles. With chargeddust particles water molecule forms a complex coagu-lated particle.
Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by die_another_day
You're correct, liquid water vaporizes rapidly in a vacuum. There has been no claim (by scientists, that is) of liquid water existing on the surface of the Moon.
[edit on 9/25/2009 by Phage]
But now Pieters and her colleagues have delivered a surprise. They say they found evidence of water -- in small concentrations, but enough to add up to billions of gallons -- virtually all over the lunar surface.
Three spacecraft picked up the signature of water, not just in the frigid polar craters where it has long been suspected to exist, but all over the lunar surface, which was previously thought to be bone dry.
How much of each type of molecule exist on the surface can't be determined from the data, but suffice it to say the lunar soil couldn't be called wet.
"Even the driest deserts on the Earth have more water than are at the poles and surfaces, as we've presented here, of the moon," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The exact form that the water takes on the lunar surface isn't clear with the data the scientists have, either, though they have several ideas: The water could be mixed in to the lunar surface or could be a part of altered minerals present in the lunar dirt.
Bangalore: Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) are on the brink of a path-breaking discovery. They may have found signs of life in some form or the other on the Moon.
They believe so because scientific instruments on India's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, picked up signatures of organic matter on parts of the Moon's surface, Surendra Pal, associate director, Isro Satellite Centre (Isac), said at the international radar symposium here on Friday.
Organic matter consists of organic compounds, which consists of carbon -- the building block of life.
It indicates the formation of life or decay of a once-living matter.
Pal said the signatures were relayed back to the Bylalu deep space network station near Bangalore by the mass spectrometer on board the Indian payload, the moon impact probe (MIP), on November 14, 2008.
The relay of data happened moments before it crashed near the Moon's south pole. The MIP was the first experiment of the Chandrayaan-1 mission, which was launched on October 22, 2008.
Pal, however, did not elaborate, but concluded saying "the findings are being analysed and scrutinised for validation by Isro scientists and peer reviewers".
"It is too early to say anything," said the director of Isro's space physics laboratory R Sridharan, who is heading the team of MIP data analysis and study. He, however, did not deny the finding.
DNA later inquired with other senior Chandrayaan-1 mission scientists, who not only confirmed the finding, but gave further details.
"Certain atomic numbers were observed that indicated the presence of carbon components. This indicates the possibility of the presence of organic matter (on the Moon)," a senior scientist told DNA.
Interestingly, similar observations were made by the US's first manned Moon landing mission, the Apollo-11, in July 1969, which brought lunar soil samples back to Earth. But due to a lack of sophisticated equipment then, the scientists could not confirm the finding.
However, traces of amino acids, which are basic to life, were found in the soil retrieved by the Apollo-11 astronauts.
The Chandrayaan-1 scientists, at present, are analysing the source of origin of the Moon's organic matter. "It could be comets or meteorites which have deposited the matter on the Moon's surface; or the instrument that landed on the Moon could have left traces," a senior space scientist said.
"But the presence of large sheets of ice in the polar regions of the Moon, and the discovery of water molecules there, lend credence to the possibility of organic matter there," he said.
"Certain atomic numbers were observed that indicated the presence of carbon components. This indicates the possibility of the presence of organic matter (on the Moon)," a senior scientist told DNA.
Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by '___'omino
Very interesting but it sounds like a reporter got the story a bit messed up.
First he says organic matter was found then later says:
"Certain atomic numbers were observed that indicated the presence of carbon components. This indicates the possibility of the presence of organic matter (on the Moon)," a senior scientist told DNA.
The presence of carbon compounds is a pretty far cry from "organic matter". The LCROSS mission also found organic compounds.
No amino acids were found in Apollo samples, though precursors were. The same precursors which have been found in meteorites.
[edit on 12/12/2009 by Phage]