More water evidence on Moon
Source: Agencies |
April 14, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ICE deposits at least 2 meters thick can be found in some small craters on the moon, researchers have reported in one of two studies showing more evidence of water on the moon and Mars.
The second study suggested that ice has recently melted and re-frozen on Mars, widening some of the characteristic gullies on its surface.
The two studies add to the debate about how best to explore our solar system - with missions that include human crews, or experiments using robots and remote surveys.
The administration of United States President Barack Obama last month said it would cancel the Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon by 2020. Obama's plan is to contract private companies to do some of the work needed to investigate Mars, using robots, remote sensors and perhaps some astronauts.
In one of the two studies released on Monday, Paul Spudis of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston and colleagues analyzed measurements from India's Chandrayaan spacecraft to find evidence of thick ice deposits in some permanently shaded craters on the moon.
"As the moon has been bombarded with water-bearing objects such as comets and meteorites and implanted with solar wind hydrogen over geological time, some of this material must have made its way into these cold, dark areas," they wrote in Geophysical Research Letters.
They measure something called circular polarization ratio to show either the surface there is unusually rough, or there are between 2 and 3 meters of ice there.
The second study showed a 2-meter-wide gully on Mars had become nearly 120 meters longer over two years.
Dennis Reiss of the Institute for Planetology at Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat in Germany and colleagues said the best explanation is the melting of small amounts of water ice.
Photographs show dark patches in the gully, as well as some smaller, new channels, they reported in the same journal.
It may get warm enough at the surface to melt water on Mars, they added.
In September, several teams reported clear evidence of water, likely frozen, on the desert surfaces of both the moon and Mars.
The second study suggested that ice has recently melted and re-frozen on Mars, widening some of the characteristic gullies on its surface.
The two studies add to the debate about how best to explore our solar system - with missions that include human crews, or experiments using robots and remote surveys.
The administration of United States President Barack Obama last month said it would cancel the Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon by 2020. Obama's plan is to contract private companies to do some of the work needed to investigate Mars, using robots, remote sensors and perhaps some astronauts.
In one of the two studies released on Monday, Paul Spudis of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston and colleagues analyzed measurements from India's Chandrayaan spacecraft to find evidence of thick ice deposits in some permanently shaded craters on the moon.
"As the moon has been bombarded with water-bearing objects such as comets and meteorites and implanted with solar wind hydrogen over geological time, some of this material must have made its way into these cold, dark areas," they wrote in Geophysical Research Letters.
They measure something called circular polarization ratio to show either the surface there is unusually rough, or there are between 2 and 3 meters of ice there.
The second study showed a 2-meter-wide gully on Mars had become nearly 120 meters longer over two years.
Dennis Reiss of the Institute for Planetology at Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat in Germany and colleagues said the best explanation is the melting of small amounts of water ice.
Photographs show dark patches in the gully, as well as some smaller, new channels, they reported in the same journal.
It may get warm enough at the surface to melt water on Mars, they added.
In September, several teams reported clear evidence of water, likely frozen, on the desert surfaces of both the moon and Mars.
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