Finally! Waiting for them to find living beings.
AP/WSJ – A spacecraft intentionally crashed into the moon last month showed that there is a significant amount of water on the moon, at least near the lunar south pole, scientists said Friday.
“Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn’t find just a little bit, we found a significant amount,” said Anthony Colaprete, the mission’s principal investigator at NASA’s Ames Research Center. The lunar impact kicked up at least 25 gallons of water and that is only what scientists can see, Mr. Colaprete said.
Having an abundance of water on the moon would make it easier to set up a base camp for astronauts by providing drinking water and an ingredient for rocket fuel.
Eons of solar wind bombardment will as likely make that water heavy.
I didn’t think you could have liquid water when there is no atmosphere.
I forget isn’t heavy water considered H202? or H30?
Water on the moon!!! Thats insane! Nasa have been saying it for years but I never believed them. It’s very exciting news! Who knows, in 20 years time I may have a condo on the moon!?
Don’t worry. NASA will find a way to squander it so there’s none left to make a decent glass of Tang for thirsty colonists.
Isn’t NASA violating the Clean Water Act?
#2–Hopper==interesting. Let me analyse with my High School physics: states of matter are determined by temperature and pressure. Now, with “no atmosphere” I think there is often “less pressure” but the presence or absence of atmosphere is not part of the equation?
Thats “my” answer PLUS the assumption the article was dumbed down for general readership? Water being a stand in for H2O.
#2 hopper
Its water ICE … of course there is no liquid water on the moon. Any water that got direct sun light would sublimate.
#3 FRAGaLOT
Heavy water refers to water that has deuterium (stable heavy isotope of hydrogen) atoms instead of regular hydrogen. It is also known as deuterium oxide, D2O or ²H2O.
This finding only confirms the obvious: comets and some asteroids are dirty snowballs, comets and asteroids strike the moon over thousands of years, hence, the moon has collected water (snow) from space.
Your tax dollars at work.
@ Father
I am sure you mean billions not thousands. You wouldn’t be in Congress would you?
Isn’t that the photo that the NYT used for their nano-tech cover story two months ago?
This is awesome news. I hope they find some life form in there somewhere. Imagine the ramifications of that. The Christians will have to AGAIN edit the bible!
#9–Improb==surely billions are made up of thousands? Centuries, Decades, Weekends, Full Moons, and seconds as well?
I remember some statistical reporting rules about decimal places used in relationship to degrees of reliability, but in common parlance such as here – – – . Anybody know the term for whats at issue here? NO not that. When you use the “wrong” measuring unit. Academics love that shit.
I thought the Europeans already discovered water there BEFORE we did. This is old news.
The future of human space exploration looks bleak. After making great leaps 50 years ago, stagnation has taken over. No human has left Earth orbit in 37 years, and NASA’s current unambitious goals look to be further delayed or scaled back.
http://www.watchinghistory.com/2009/11/future-of-space-exploration.html
You have to give them credit for at least remembering where the moon is.
Great find! (groan). Now we’ll have to endure manned space flight advocates telling us that Dubya actually was right about a glorious return to that blank gray desert in the sky. Can you imagine the cost and effort establishing an outpost up there? For what? “Because it’s there”? I guess some brave characters would want to go…and then, for an encore…”Mars Or Bust!”
Oh I realize astronauts are pretty good at fixing local satellites, but the optimist in me hopes that our excellent robots will eventually demonstrate the folly of our trying to move ourselves to those unimaginably lonely and radiation-drenched places.
I’m still waiting for them to find cheese, then moon people will have something to eat.
I’m with JCD on this. They are priming the public for new moon mission money.
No matter what the story is we know this:
pedro is retarded.
He is the product of two morons who bred and created an idiot spawn that should have been killed at birth.
Improbus, by using the quantity “1000s”, I’m reaching out to the lowest common denominator with the greatest common factor. It’s the new PC literacy, give it a try!
It looks more like the face of Janis Joplin to me. Am I right?
Hardly matters if we don’t have the gumption to actually go. Doesn’t it strike you as moronic that forty years later we don’t have a moonbase? Think of all the marvels the space race gave us and just think what else we might have had we had the actual will to move forward instead of resting on our laurels. When I was a kid, I was certain I’d live to see men camping out on Mars and Ganymede. Now, I’m pretty sure I’ll be dead before the first astronaut drops a bit of moon ice in his julep.
Considering they have been finding geysers of water jetting out of all sorts of celestial bodies over the past several years and clouds of water vapour almost anywhere they look..and even clouds of alcohol.
..there should be no surprise that there is a water creation process in play on the moon.
What is more “surprising” (for NASA anyway) is that the process is speeding up as of late.
(hint: the current solar minimum helps plays a role)
It is an electro-chemical process that has been going as long as their has been hydrogen and oxygen available in the Inter Stellar Medium, -and an energy source to “help it along”
I understand the sodium found in the plume may also help. (some sodium reactions can produce water-type byproducts) (my chemistry is very rusty)
Imagine that, an ongoing water creation process throughout space. In an Electric Universe, this would be no surprise at all. In a Gravity based Universe, well, you know, just like everything else, it’s, “a surprise!” (now, if gravity were electromagnetic in nature..)
You know, with all this “water making material” in space, i bet ya some clever E.T,’s have figured out how to make water “along the way” -wherever they care to go..maybe even park above a star to collect some hydrogen and oxygen. -just add some energy and get some seriously pure water. Or just find a vapor cloud..
This is gonna really rain on the “We are unique and all alone in the universe” crowd’s parade.. -or maybe not:
“Alien life is possible: Vatican”
I especially love this line:
Gee, now i wonder what made that narrow minded bunch have a change of heart? Now if the Vatican can have a change of heart, maybe they’ll *allow* NASA to have one too..and embrace the fact that we live in an Electric Universe. -What with all those *charged* particles streaming about through space and all..
(won’t hold my breath though)
-s
Great news. Really interested that they can find water on Moon
so… What did they find the first time?
wait dont tell me. they landed in a desert part of the moon thats why there was no water there.
I think this story just opened another hole in the great american lie. Nasa employees have been to the moon.
THIS JUST IN!!! …
Water Vendor on Moon Gets Obliterated by NASA.
and…
Moons Only Source of Water Destroyed.
and…
Alien Message Received by SETI. “We Will Retaliate”
what state of matter is this in when there is water?
I want to quote your post in my blog. It can?
And you et an account on Twitter?