Wednesday, August 28, 2013

More Moon Water

Hey Space Placers!

   New research results just released show that the Moon has another source of water other than that locked in the permanent shadows of some craters and water in the lunar soil due to interactions with the solar wind. Called magmatic water, it is water from deep within the Moon's interior that has made its' way to the surface.

   Observations made of the lunar crater Bullialdus with NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) flying aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiting spacecraft in 2009, scientists found tell tale minerals in the crater that were not found nearby. Studying the distribution of these minerals led to the conclusion that the crater had the water bearing deposits.

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Bullialdus Crater

This discovery doesn't mean that the Moon is awash in water - far from it. The water is locked up in the minerals but it is there. This finding shows that the Moon is not so dry after all in its' rocks as was originally thought during the study of the Apollo lunar samples.


Sky Guy in VA


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