Water has been reportedly
found inside rocks brought back from
the Moon. If it is there, where did
it come from?
In previous Picture of the Day
articles, the presence of frozen
water on the Moon was considered to
be a theoretical possibility, but
was not given much credence. Recent
missions designed to explore the
question more thoroughly have
returned results that seem to show
water in greater amounts than
predicted by planetary scientists.
Michael Wargo, chief lunar
scientist at NASA Headquarters in
Washington, wrote: "NASA has
convincingly confirmed the presence
of water ice and characterized its
patchy distribution in permanently
shadowed regions of the moon."
The Moon has long thought to have
been created when a planet the size
of Mars hit Earth billions of years
ago. It was once a blob of molten
magma that was torn out and hurled
into orbit. Since it was born in an
event that generated immense heat,
there should be no water on or
inside the Moon: it should have all
boiled away.
Samples brought back by the
various Apollo missions were
predominantly dry. They contained
metallic iron, as well, something
that would not exist if there were
any appreciable moisture in the
samples. On January 25, 1994, NASA's
Deep Space Program Science
Experiment satellite (Clementine)
data indicated that the south pole
of the Moon contained pockets of
water ice shielded from the Sun by
shadows cast from the walls of deep
craters.
The recent Lunar CRater
Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)
and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
(LRO) found almost pure ice crystals
within craters that are permanently
shaded. LCROSS, along with one of
its rocket stages, struck Cabeus
crater on October 9, 2009. When the
explosive cloud rose up to 16
kilometers above the lunar surface,
both LCROSS and LRO observed the
debris with a variety of sensors.
Spectrographic analysis showed water
ice in the vapor plume.
Water is built from two hydrogen
atoms and an oxygen atom. Hydrogen
arrives on the Moon by way of the
solar wind, with its one electron
stripped, traveling along as a
proton. If a hydrogen atom is
removed from water, it becomes a
hydroxyl molecule. Water and
hydroxyl can bind to the lunar
surface through electrical forces.
Solar wind protons can form hydrogen
atoms when they pick up loose
electrons from the Moon's charged
surface, as well. The hydrogen might
then combine with ionized oxygen
atoms in the regolith to form water.
Five separate missions have
reported the discovery of either
water or hydroxyl on the Moon:
Chandrayaan-1, Cassini,
as it flew by on its way to Saturn,
EPOXI, the Lunar
Prospector, and LCROSS.
Chandrayaan-1 and EPOXI found
that there was water or hydroxyl
over the Moon's entire surface
during a portion of each day. Near
the poles and in permanently
shadowed craters the signal was
stronger.
Water and other volatiles are
most likely on the Moon because it
and the Earth were once part of the
same grouping of planets that
wandered into the realm of the Sun
long ago. We most likely shared a
similar birth, with similar chemical
gifts. From an Electric Universe
perspective, the sparse presence of
water on the Moon is not surprising.
The catastrophic nature of the
Moon's experiences over time have
removed most of what was once there,
leaving only a pale shadow behind.
The Solar System's gas giant
planets and their accompanying moons
suggest that our own Moon might once
have been similar: theirs are
largely covered in ice. Perhaps what
has been seen in the deep polar
craters on the Moon are all that
remains.
Stephen Smith
A video documentary that could
change everything you thought you
knew about ancient times and
symbols. In this second episode of
Symbols of an Alien Sky, David
Talbott takes the viewer on an
odyssey across the surface of Mars.
Exploring feature after feature of
the planet, he finds that only
electric arcs could produce the
observed patterns. The high
resolution images reveal massive
channels and gouges, great mounds,
and crater chains, none finding an
explanation in traditional geology,
but all matching the scars from
electric discharge experiments in
the laboratory. (Approximately 85
minutes)