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The Solar System is" Full of Water!" New Results, From the Moon and Mars

September 25, 2009 (LPAC)—During back-to-back NASA briefings today, scientists presented new data that reveal an unexpected prevalence of water on the Moon, and a constantly changing Mars. The lunar data were gathered by various spacecraft, over the past decade. Jessica Sunshine, of the University of Maryland, summarized the findings: "the entire surface of the Moon appears to be hydrated during at least some portion of the lunar day."

The Moon Mineral Mapper, (M-cubed) contributed by the U.S., and flown on India's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, mapped 90% of the Moon in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Although earlier observations of the lunar poles had revealed an abundance of hydrogen, it was not certain this was water, and it was not found elsewhere on the Moon. M-cubed found hydroxyl molecules—one oxygen and one hydrogen atom—and a thin layer of water ice, virtually all over the lunar surface. The water molecules appear to be "clinging" to the surface, and are not absorbed in to the soil. The Moon is still drier than any desert on Earth, with about 50 parts per million of water.

These findings were confirmed when scientists reexamined data from a decade ago, collected by the Cassini spacecraft when it flew by the Moon on its way to Saturn. More recently, the Deep Impact spacecraft, with the mission to study comets, made high-resolution images of the Moon this past June. That data revealed that frozen water appears to collect during the cooler nights, and by noon, is gone, and, it is thought, migrates to the colder poles. The scientists reported that it will take years of analysis to try to figure out what role hydrogen deposited from the solar wind, impacts from icy comets, and/or the release of underground ice from meteorite impacts play in this dynamic diurnal water cycle on the Moon.

The scientists also pointed out that because there are spatial variations in the amount of water on the Moon, there are dynamic processes going on, on a body misanthropes describe as a "dead" body.

As reported also, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has added important new data to our understanding of the presence and dynamics of water on Mars. Its high-resolution imaging camera last year found five newly-formed impact craters, which appeared to contain ice. During this past summer, a new round of photographs of the craters revealed that the ice had sublimated—faded away—going directly from solid to a gaseous vapor in the atmosphere, over a period of 100 days.

The scientists were very surprised to find that the ice is almost perfectly pure, as they had expected a 50/50 mix of ice with soil. At one site, they suggest that there is a broad, solid layer of ice. By studying the changes in eccentricity in Mars' orbit, its axial tilt, and other cyclical changes, the scientists believe, working backwards, that the atmosphere was more humid, and much of the ice may have formed, about 10,000 years ago—the blink of an eye, in geological terms.

Candidate mechanisms for the accumulation of subsurface ice are snowfall, about 400,000 years ago, and liquid water which migrated and formed ice. The water on Mars, it was proposed, goes through cycles of being ablated off the polar caps, migrating to mid latitudes, and migrating back to the poles when the climate changes.


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