Water on the Moon, Data from multiple missions seems to indicate... |
Water on the Moon, Data from multiple missions seems to indicate... |
Sep 24 2009, 12:23 AM
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#1
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
This probably deserves it's own thread. Seems the evidence is not specific to only one mission...
space.com article: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0909...-discovery.html -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Sep 24 2009, 01:10 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 29-December 05 From: NE Oh, USA Member No.: 627 |
From the AP
"Three different space probes found the chemical signature of water all over the moon's surface, surprising the scientists who at first doubted the unexpected measurement until it was confirmed independently and repeatedly." http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...mQs6OgD9AT9B4O1 Craig |
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Sep 24 2009, 02:56 AM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4763 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Glendale, AZ Member No.: 197 |
I'd say the timing is now ripe for another announced discovery of water on Mars.
-------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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Sep 24 2009, 03:55 AM
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#4
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
There are two more papers, one by Sunshine et al from Deep Impact, and very short one by Roger Clark from Cassini. All find the same 3-micron feature indicating the presence of H20 or OH, but not surprisingly all have slightly different takes on the significance (though I should note Clark is the 3rd author on the Pieters paper).
--Emily -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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Sep 24 2009, 04:03 AM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 3108 Joined: 21-December 05 From: Canberra, Australia Member No.: 615 |
Dan, We've had the "water on Mars" line so many times now, I think it deserves its own icon.
EDIT: Please note that I decided to pull the link to the Water on the Moon story. |
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Sep 24 2009, 04:18 AM
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#6
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2173 Joined: 28-December 04 From: Florida, USA Member No.: 132 |
I'd say the timing is now ripe for another announced discovery of water on Mars. I would compare water discoveries on Mars to oil discoveries on Earth. We know there is water on Mars, but that doesn't mean that new discoveries, whether in location or extent, are not big news. |
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Sep 24 2009, 04:22 AM
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#7
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
...killer, Astro0!
Suspect that this will all prove to be of minerological rather than practical interest after the dust settles; it really ain't a lot of water. The possiblity of endogenous origin via solar wind interaction with the soil is fascinating, though. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Sep 24 2009, 05:09 AM
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#8
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4763 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Glendale, AZ Member No.: 197 |
I would compare water discoveries on Mars to oil discoveries on Earth. We know there is water on Mars, but that doesn't mean that new discoveries, whether in location or extent, are not big news. Yes, but the oil companies don't send out press releases with every discovery that breathlessly announce: "The long suspected existence of oil on Earth has finally been confirmed." -------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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Sep 24 2009, 05:20 AM
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#9
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2173 Joined: 28-December 04 From: Florida, USA Member No.: 132 |
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Sep 24 2009, 12:02 PM
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#10
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Member Group: Members Posts: 276 Joined: 11-December 07 From: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Member No.: 3978 |
According to SpaceRef.com, NASA hadn't yet released Cassini data from the flyby of 1999 until now it seems. Has anyone noticed this?
This reminds me of the Phoenix conundrum of last year. -------------------- |
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Sep 24 2009, 12:35 PM
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#11
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
I can only find ISS data from Cassini for the earth flyby - nothing from any other instrument (using http://starbrite.jpl.nasa.gov/ ) so working on the assumption that this is VIMS or CIRS data -then yup - it's not been in the PDS.
I'm finding it hard to get excited about this. We're talking about something two to three times, possibly 30 times drier, than dry concrete - and even then - if I'm not misreading stuff, just in the top few mm of the regolith is this 'damp' (BBC's choice of word there) So you might get a few tens of tons of water out of ploughing through an entire square km of surface. I'm struggling to imagine that as being useful for, err, anything. It may well be that this surface smattering of H+O is all there is to the water on the moon story (given the none too positive results from radar mapping of the moons poles) - so I'm going to stick my neck out and predict a very dry LCROSS event. |
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Sep 24 2009, 01:12 PM
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#12
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Rover Driver Group: Members Posts: 1015 Joined: 4-March 04 Member No.: 47 |
It must be VIMS data.
I could be very wrong, but from the few articles on this I've seen this means that the dark craters get more water input than thought, so there could be a lot more there (??). The press conference will address some of these things I'm sure. I find it hard to judge what they exactly saw where. |
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Sep 24 2009, 01:41 PM
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#13
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
It is VIMS data, and it is in the PDS. One problem is that the Clark paper seems to have given the wrong date for the data he shows -- he said August 19, it was August 18. Do a search here: http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/search/search.html for VIMS data on August 18, 1999 and toward the bottom of the results page you'll see the lunar stuff. An example browse image is attached. It's fairly low resolution. I'm looking for anyone who can turn this stuff into a pretty natural color view.
-------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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Sep 24 2009, 01:53 PM
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#14
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10157 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
I'm giving up on predicting anything - well, except the stock market.
Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PD: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Sep 24 2009, 02:30 PM
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#15
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Member Group: Members Posts: 276 Joined: 11-December 07 From: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Member No.: 3978 |
Might be safe to say that this discovery could be used to explain the wierd distribution of the hydrogen detected by LRO.
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