8.3 day old moon
59.6 percent lit
Water, water, everywhere. There is water on the Moon, Mars and probably on the Sun will be the next discovery.
Read an article critical of Elon Musk's plans for a human Mars colony of 1 million by 2025. Wow. That has everyone excited. We haven't even put scientists on Mars yet. A million people require a lot of services. I admire the ambition, but, rushing into a plan with such high risk for 1 million people seems premature. Such a colony has to come with guarantees and so far the only entity able to survive are Mars Rovers.
It is premature. It should happen when the venture is obviously safe. Not even close yet. Heck, humans haven't gotten Earth right, what makes anyone think they have Mars right?
October 26, 2020
NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory (click here) for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places.
SOFIA has detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth, located in the Moon’s southern hemisphere. Previous observations of the Moon’s surface detected some form of hydrogen, but were unable to distinguish between water and its close chemical relative, hydroxyl (OH). Data from this location reveal water in concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million – roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water – trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface. The results are published in the latest issue of Nature Astronomy.
“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. “Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.”
As a comparison, the Sahara desert has 100 times the amount of water than what SOFIA detected in the lunar soil. Despite the small amounts, the discovery raises new questions about how water is created and how it persists on the harsh, airless lunar surface....
