NASA Searches for Water on Moon
21 October 2010
This image provided Friday, Nov. 13, 2009 by NASA shows the ejecta plume created by the LCROSS Centaur upper stage rocket about 20 seconds after after impact 9 Oct 2009
Last October, a NASA rocket, traveling at a speed of 9,000 kilometers per hour, smashed into a dark crater on the moon's south pole.
Upon impact, the Centaur rocket kicked up a cloud of debris and elements from the moon's surface, creating a so-called "ejecta-plume" that was monitored by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO.
Scientists analyzed the findings, and preliminary results from this mission, as well as others, suggested that there was some form of water on the moon. NASA lunar scientist Michael Wargo said that a wave of findings during the past year makes it certain.
"We've confirmed that there was indeed water ice in the ejecta-plume, and at an abundance that was about 50 percent greater than our initial estimates," Wargo announced Thursday.
That means that the impact site has more water than some deserts on Earth.
Wargo was among the scientists speaking at a NASA teleconference about the latest findings from the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, and LRO missions.
Wargo said that the presence of water ice on the moon does not mean that the moon is like an ice-skating rink - not even in the deep craters of the moon's south pole that are in perpetual darkness. But, he said, "The Centaur hit in stuff that can best be described as fluffy, snow-covered dirt".
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