News Alert: Water Found on the Moon!

Image Credit: NASA/LCROSS

It’s official.  The NASA LCROSS mission has concluded that there is indeed water on the moon!  The team of researchers who worked on the mission released their findings today, November 14, 2009:

The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water.

Secrets the moon has been holding, for perhaps billions of years, are now being revealed to the delight of scientists and space enthusiasts alike.

NASA today opened a new chapter in our understanding of the moon. Preliminary data from the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates that the mission successfully uncovered water during the Oct. 9, 2009 impacts into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus cater near the moon’s south pole.

This exciting news will forever change our understanding of the moon and the planets elsewhere in our solar system.

According to the LCROSS team, the impact of the LCROSS Centaur upper stage rocket resulted in a two-part flume of material shooting out from the bottom of the crater.  The first part was largely vapor and dust, but the second released a material that was, at the time, unidentifiable–a material that had not seen light in billions of years.

Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, released this statement regarding the findings:  “We’re unlocking the mysteries of our nearest neighbor and by extension the solar system. It turns out the moon harbors many secrets, and LCROSS has added a new layer to our understanding.”

Image Credit: NASA/LCROSS

NASA went on to say that, with this data in hand, the possibility of water being on the moon is now much more widespread than previously thought.  There may, in fact, be water under the surface, or even in deep craters scattered over various parts of the moon’s surface.

“Permanently shadowed regions could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data. In addition, water, and other compounds represent potential resources that could sustain future lunar exploration,” said Jonas Dino of the NASA Ames Research Center in his article on the findings.

This discovery of water opens many new doors for research and space exploration.  The existence of water on the moon implies that the moon itself could harbor some form of primitive life, perhaps similar to the primitive life that gave birth to the spectacular range of species here on earth.  In addition, the water could potentially be a resource for manned missions to the moon and beyond.

Image Credit: NASA/LCROSS

Perhaps most exciting is if there is water on the moon, a rock with no atmosphere, the probability of water existing on planets like mars increases, as Mars has many more atmospheric resources for the formation of water or other various liquids that could harbor some form of life.

“We are ecstatic,” said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. “Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapor plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact. The concentration and distribution of water and other substances requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water.”

For more information, including a full summary of the LCROSS mission, its findings, and photographs and other data from the mission, check out NASA’s article on this groundbreaking study.

Sources: Wired.com, GoogleNews, NASA

Further Reading:

• NASA LCROSS Mission Findings/Impact Data
• Detailed Images of the LCROSS Findings; NASA
• ScienceNews.org – Summary of LCROSS findings

Tags: Astrobiology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Biology, Chemistry, Cosmology, LCROSS, Moon, NASA, Physics, Science in the Public, Water, Water on the Moon