NASA: Water on the moon!

NASA says its Oct. 9 LCROSS lunar impacts stirred up an old pool:

The team took the known near infrared spectral signatures of water and other materials and compared them to the spectra collected by the LCROSS near infrared spectrometer of the impact.

"We were only able to match the spectra from LCROSS data when we inserted the spectra for water," said Colaprete. "No other reasonable combination of other compounds that we tried matched the observations. The possibility of contamination from the Centaur also was ruled out."

Additional confirmation came from an emission in the ultraviolet spectrum that was attributed to hydroxyl, one product from the break-up of water by sunlight.

The moon has water. Many decades from now, it may come in handy.

Frank Warner

Comments

[jj mollo]

Reminds me of a old country-western song, "How High's the Water, Mama?"