NASA Radar Finds Ice Deposits at Moon's North Pole

[bystander]

NASA Radar Finds Ice Deposits at Moon's North Pole;
Additional Evidence of Water Activity on Moon
NASA PR 10-055 - March 1, 2010

Using data from a NASA radar that flew aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists have detected ice deposits near the moon's north pole. NASA's Mini-SAR instrument, a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar, found more than 40 small craters with water ice. The craters range in size from 1 to 9 miles (2 to15 km) in diameter. Although the total amount of ice depends on its thickness in each crater, it's estimated there could be at least 600 million metric tons of water ice.

Space.com: Tons of Water Ice Found on the Moon's North Pole
Universe Today: Water Ice Found on Moon's North Pole

[bystander]

Moon Whets Appetite for Water
Carnegie Institution for Science - 14 June 2010

Scientists at the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory, with colleagues, have discovered a much higher water content in the Moon’s interior than previous studies. Their research suggests that the water, which is a component of the lunar rocks, was preserved from the hot magma that was present when the Moon began to form some 4.5 billion years ago, and that it is likely widespread in the Moon’s interior. The research is published in the on-line early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of June 14.

“For over 40 years we thought the Moon was dry. The bulk water content of the Moon was estimated to be less than 1 ppb, which would make the Moon at least six orders of magnitude drier than the interiors of Earth and Mars,” remarked lead author Francis McCubbin. “In our study we looked at hydroxyl in the mineral apatite—the only hydrous mineral in the assemblage of minerals we examined in two Apollo samples and a lunar meteorite.”

Research Suggests Water Content Of Moon Interior Underestimated
NASA (10-144) - 14 June 2010

NASA-funded scientists estimate from recent research that the volume of water molecules locked inside minerals in the moon's interior could exceed the amount of water in the Great Lakes here on Earth.

Scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory in Washington, along with other scientists across the nation, determined that the water was likely present very early in the moon's formation history as hot magma started to cool and crystallize. This finding means water is native to the moon.

Nominally hydrous magmatism on the Moon

• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
  (14 June 2010), DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1006677107

For the past 40 years, the Moon has been described as nearly devoid of indigenous water; however, evidence for water both on the lunar surface and within the lunar interior have recently emerged, calling into question this long-standing lunar dogma.

[bystander]

A Wetter Moon Impacts Understanding of Lunar Origin
Smithsonian | Air & Space | 19 June 2010

Is there water on the Moon?

We know now that the answer to that question is a resounding Yes! As information continues to emerge from a wide range of studies, it’s evident that we’ve just begun to understand the process of the creation, movement and history of water on the Moon and its prevalence.
...
So what does all this mean? For models of lunar origin, some mechanism preserved primordial water inside the Moon immediately after it formed. It had been thought that if the Moon originated during a collision of a planet-sized object with the proto-Earth 4.5 billion years ago (the currently favored model), the high temperatures extant during such an event would “boil away” most, if not all, volatile substances. Indeed, the near absence of volatile substances in the Moon has long been cited as prima facie evidence for a high-energy environment of lunar formation, such as would be expected from a giant impact. It now appears that regardless of high temperatures prevalent during this time, some water was incorporated into the Moon. Does this make the giant impact model less likely? Perhaps. Clearly we do not fully understand the conditions created by such an event. Work continues on the problem of lunar origin with the handicap that a planetary-scale collision is something well beyond human experience or observation.
...
The Moon continually surprises us as she reluctantly (but always provocatively) reveals her secrets. In recent months, a wholly new and totally unexpected picture of the processes and history of our nearest planetary neighbor has emerged. We are in the midst of a renaissance of lunar science.

[bystander]

APOD: Water Discovered on the Moon (2009 Sept 28)

NASA JPL M3: Moon Mineralogy Mapper
NASA JPL M3: Signatures of Water

[bystander]

UT researchers discover water on the moon is widespread, similar to Earth's
University of Tennessee, Knoxville | 21 July 2010

Researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are once again turning what scientists thought they knew about the moon on its head.

Thin slice of lunar basalt with a petrographic (geologic) microscope in plane-polarized light.Last fall, researchers, including Larry Taylor, a distinguished professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, discovered “lunar dew” on the moon’s surface — absorbed “water” in the uppermost layers of lunar soil. This discovery of water debunked beliefs held since the return of the first Apollo rocks that the moon was bone-dry.

Now, scientists, including Taylor and Yang Liu, research assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, have discovered that water on the moon is more widespread — on the outside and inside of the moon — with some similarities to water in volcanic systems on Earth.

Their research will be featured in the article, “Lunar Apatite with Terrestrial Volatile Abundances” in the July 22 edition of the scientific journal, Nature.

Unlike lunar dew which is believed to come from an outside source such as solar wind which brings hydrogen into contact with the Moon’s oxygen, the water discovered by Taylor and Liu is internal, arising from an entirely different origin. How it got there is not yet known. The water may have been added by impacting comets, which contain ice, during or after the formation of the moon and Earth.

Caltech Team Finds Evidence of Water in Moon Minerals
California Institute of Technology | 21 July 2010

That dry, dusty moon overhead? Seems it isn't quite as dry as it's long been thought to be. Although you won't find oceans, lakes, or even a shallow puddle on its surface, a team of geologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), working with colleagues at the University of Tennessee, has found structurally bound hydroxyl groups (i.e., water) in a mineral in a lunar rock returned to Earth by the Apollo program.

Their findings are detailed in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

"The moon, which has generally been thought to be devoid of hydrous materials, has water," says John Eiler, the Robert P. Sharp Professor of Geology and professor of geochemistry at Caltech, and a coauthor on the paper.

"The fact that we were able to quantitatively measure significant amounts of water in a lunar mineral is truly surprising," adds lead author Jeremy Boyce, a visitor in geochemistry at Caltech, and a research scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The team found the water in a calcium phosphate mineral, apatite, within a basalt collected from the moon's surface by the Apollo 14 astronauts.

To be precise, they didn't find "water"-the molecule H₂O. Rather, they found hydrogen in the form of a hydroxyl anion, OH^-, bound in the apatite mineral lattice.

Lunar apatite with terrestrial volatile abundances

• Nature 466 (22 July 2010) | doi: 10.1038/nature09274

[neufer]

Lunar apatite with terrestrial volatile abundances

• Nature 466 (22 July 2010) | doi: 10.1038/nature09274

The team found the water in a calcium phosphate mineral, apatite, within a basalt collected from the moon's surface by the Apollo 14 astronauts. To be precise, they didn't find "water"-the molecule H₂O.

Rather, they found hydrogen in the form of a hydroxyl ANION, OH^-, bound in the apatite mineral lattice.

• --------------------------------------------
  "Life is like an onion,
  Reality like a dream,
  Layers and layers until nothing,
  Reflection in a pale moon's gleam." - Lady Tristram
  --------------------------------------------
  “Life is like an onion:
  You peel it off one layer at a time,
  and sometimes you weep.” - Carl Sandburg
  --------------------------------------------

SEINFELD Episode no. 136 "The Soul Mate" (Original air date 26 Sept 1996)
......................................
JERRY: Just give me some idea of what you think it could be.

GEORGE: I don't know if you're ready for it.

JERRY: Please.

GEORGE: I believe that I am about to become the target of a systematic process
of intimidation and manipulation, the likes of which you have never -

JERRY: Hold it, hold it! You're right, I'm not ready for this.

GEORGE: I'm not through here, Jerry. I'm gonna keep on investigating.
This thing is like an onion. The more layers you peel, the more it stinks.
--------------------------------------------