Water Molecules found on the Moons Surface
Image credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown Univ.
Three separate spacecraft have revealed that water molecules are present in the polar regions of the moon and in greater amounts than predicted. Hydroxyl was also found which consists of only one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom. NASA’s Moon Minerology Mapper, also known as M3 gave these results. M3 was carried into space on 22 October 2008 aboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft which was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation. Data was also collected by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft as well as the High Resolution Infrared Imaging Spectrometer on NASA’s EPOXI spacecraft which helped to confirm the presence of water molecules.
The imaging spectrometers on the spacecraft made it possible to map lunar water more effectively than before.
Due to the confirmation of high levels of water molecules and hydroxyl at these concentrations in the moon’s polar regions this now raises new questions about its origin and effect on the mineralogy of the moon.
Whilst in lunar orbit, M3’s spectrometer measured light reflecting off the moon’s surface at infrared wavelengths, splitting the spectral colors of the lunar surface into small enough bits to reveal a new level of detail in the surface composition. When the M3 science team analysed the data they found the wavelengths of light being absorbed were consistent with the absorption patterns for water molecules and hydroxyl.
The M3 team found water molecules and hydroxyl at diverse areas of the sunlit region of the moon’s surface, but the water signature appeared stronger at the moon’s higher latitudes. Water molecules and hydroxyl previously were suspected in data from a Cassini flyby of the moon in 1999, but the findings were not published until now.
Image Credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown Univ./USGS
For additional confirmation, scientists turned to the EPOXI mission while it was flying past the moon in June 2009 on its way to a November 2010 encounter with comet Hartley 2. The spacecraft not only confirmed the VIMS and M3 findings, but also expanded on them.
For additional information and images from the instruments, visit:
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