Thursday, September 24, 2009

Water, water everywhere...

...but not a drop to drink...
The Moon’s surface holds as much as a litre of water in every tonne of lunar soil, according to new research. Observations taken independently by three different spacecraft, including India’s first lunar mission, have detected the chemical signature of both water and a closely related molecule called hydroxyl all over the Moon’s surface. The data do not suggest, however, that there is much water there — or that any of it is liquid or even ice.
The water and hydroxyl molecules are instead bound up in minerals at the surface, which would still appear exceptionally dry by terrestrial standards. It would take about 730 square metres of dirt to produce a single drink of water...
Considering the sweat you'd work up moving that much dirt, I think this isn't going to be a profitable discovery anytime soon. Interesting, nonetheless.

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