Water on the Moon

[scrumpyjack]

The Telegraph reports that NASA has found substantial quantities of water on the moon.
This will be hugely important if any permanent base is to be set up there

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/1 ... test-news/

[kiloran]

I'm a bit confused by this bit:

Nasa say that, while they have discovered water, it is not in a recognisable solid or liquid form. Rather, the identified hydrogen and oxygen molecules are so far apart, they are neither in liquid or solid form

It's water, Jim, but not as we know it

--kiloran

[vrdiver]

I'm a bit confused by this bit:

Nasa say that, while they have discovered water, it is not in a recognisable solid or liquid form. Rather, the identified hydrogen and oxygen molecules are so far apart, they are neither in liquid or solid form

It's water, Jim, but not as we know it

--kiloran

To put it in perspective, the Sahara is 100x wetter than the discovery sites...

(just heard that factoid on BBC R4)

VRD

[kiloran]

“We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon,” said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

I've read and heard a few comments like this. What, exactly, is the "sunlit" side of the moon? I might expect this kind of comment from a news reporter, but an apparent quote from the director of astrophysics????

--kiloran

[ursaminortaur]

“We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon,” said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

I've read and heard a few comments like this. What, exactly, is the "sunlit" side of the moon? I might expect this kind of comment from a news reporter, but an apparent quote from the director of astrophysics????

--kiloran

They already knew that there was water in some of the permanently shaded craters at the poles but thought that it was impossible for there to be water in areas which were exposed to sunlight. This discovery of water in the Clavius crater which is exposed to sunlight contradicts that expectation.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-10-27/water-on-the-moon-what-this-discovery-means/12816776

We've suspected the Moon has lots of frozen water ice tucked away in craters at the north and south poles that never see the Sun.

But what's remarkable about this discovery is that water molecules — not ice — were found in a crater that is exposed to sunlight.

"For the first time we have unambiguously detected molecular water on the sunlit Moon," said the study's lead author Dr Casey Honniball of NASA's Goddard Space Center.

We know it's water because water molecules — two hydrogen atoms bound to an oxygen atom — give off a signal at a specific wavelength that can't be mistaken for anything else.

"Our detection shows that water may be more widespread on the surface of the Moon than previously thought and not constrained to only the pole."

[kiloran]

“We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon,” said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

I've read and heard a few comments like this. What, exactly, is the "sunlit" side of the moon? I might expect this kind of comment from a news reporter, but an apparent quote from the director of astrophysics????

--kiloran

They already knew that there was water in some of the permanently shaded craters at the poles but thought that it was impossible for there to be water in areas which were exposed to sunlight. This discovery of water in the Clavius crater which is exposed to sunlight contradicts that expectation.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-10-27/water-on-the-moon-what-this-discovery-means/12816776

We've suspected the Moon has lots of frozen water ice tucked away in craters at the north and south poles that never see the Sun.

But what's remarkable about this discovery is that water molecules — not ice — were found in a crater that is exposed to sunlight.

"For the first time we have unambiguously detected molecular water on the sunlit Moon," said the study's lead author Dr Casey Honniball of NASA's Goddard Space Center.

We know it's water because water molecules — two hydrogen atoms bound to an oxygen atom — give off a signal at a specific wavelength that can't be mistaken for anything else.

"Our detection shows that water may be more widespread on the surface of the Moon than previously thought and not constrained to only the pole."

Yes, I understand all that. "Sunlit regions" or "regions exposed to sunlight" is perfectly OK.
It's the use of "sunlit side of the moon" that I object to.

Personally, I blame Pink Floyd.

--kiloran