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NASA's LCROSS confirms presence of water in lunar crater | Preliminary data from NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, has indicated that the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater. The LCROSS spacecraft and a companion
rocket stage made twin impacts in the Cabeus crater on October 9 that created
a plume of material from the bottom of a crater that has not seen sunlight in
billions of years. The plume traveled at a high angle beyond the rim of Cabeus
and into sunlight, while an additional curtain of debris was ejected more laterally.
"We're unlocking the mysteries of our nearest neighbor and, by extension, the
solar system," said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA Headquarters
in Washington. "The moon harbors many secrets, and LCROSS has added a new layer
to our understanding," he added. Scientists have long speculated about the source
of significant quantities of hydrogen that have been observed at the lunar poles.
The LCROSS findings are shedding new light on the question with the discovery
of water, which could be more widespread and in greater quantity than previously
suspected. If the water that was formed or deposited is billions of years old,
these polar cold traps 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. Since the impacts, the LCROSS science team has been analyzing
the huge amount of data the spacecraft collected. The team concentrated on data
from the satellite's spectrometers, which provide the most definitive information
about the presence of water. A spectrometer helps identify the composition of
materials by examining light they emit or absorb. "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," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project
scientist and principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett
Field, California. "The concentration and distribution of water and other substances
requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water," he added.
The team took the known near-infrared spectral signatures of water and other materials
and compared them to the impact spectra the LCROSS near infrared spectrometer
collected. "We were able to match the spectra from LCROSS data only when we inserted
the spectra for water," Colaprete said. |
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