WASHINGTON -- For the first time, scientists have directly
observed definitive evidence of water ice on the moon's surface, US space
agency NASA has said.
Most of the newly-found water ice lies in the shadows of craters near
the moon's polar regions, where sunlight never reaches and the warmest
temperatures never reach above minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit (about minus 157
degrees Celsius), NASA said in a statement earlier this week.
"These ice deposits are patchily distributed and could possibly be
ancient," the statement said.
"At the southern pole, most of the ice is concentrated at lunar
craters, while the northern pole's ice is more widely, but sparsely
spread," it added.
Previous observations found possible signs of surface ice at the lunar
south pole, but these could have been explained by other phenomena, such as
unusually reflective lunar soil.
In the latest study, scientists used data from NASA's Moon Mineralogy
Mapper (M3) instrument to confirm the presence of solid ice on the moon.
M3 collected data that not only picked up the reflective properties of
ice but was able to directly measure the distinctive way its molecules absorb
infrared light, so as to differentiate between liquid water or vapor and solid
ice.
"With enough ice sitting at the surface -- within the top few
millimeters -- water would possibly be accessible as a resource for future
expeditions to explore and even stay on the Moon, and potentially easier to
access than the water detected beneath the Moon's surface," the statement
said.
"Learning more about this ice, how it got there, and how it
interacts with the larger lunar environment will be a key mission focus for
NASA and commercial partners, as we endeavor to return to and explore our
closest neighbor, the Moon," it added
The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences on Monday. (Xinhuanet)
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