Ice deposits discovered at Moon's north pole
Posted: Wed, Mar 3, 2010, 7:20 AM ET (1220 GMT)
An American instrument on an Indian spacecraft has detected deposits of water ice in portions of craters in the Moon's north polar region, scientists announced Monday. The Mini-SAR synthetic aperture radar instrument, which flew on India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, detected water ice in permanently shadowed regions of more than 40 small craters, with an estimated 600 million metric tons of ice overall. Scientists had long hypothesized that portions of those craters could serve as cold traps, allowing ice to collect. The discovery adds to other research that has detected traces of water ice in the Moon's polar regions, including water detected by NASA's LCROSS lunar impactor mission last fall. Chandrayaan-1 orbited the Moon for nearly a year in 2008 and 2009, carrying 11 instruments from India, Europe, and NASA.
An American instrument on an Indian spacecraft has detected deposits of water ice in portions of craters in the Moon's north polar region, scientists announced Monday. The Mini-SAR synthetic aperture radar instrument, which flew on India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, detected water ice in permanently shadowed regions of more than 40 small craters, with an estimated 600 million metric tons of ice overall. Scientists had long hypothesized that portions of those craters could serve as cold traps, allowing ice to collect. The discovery adds to other research that has detected traces of water ice in the Moon's polar regions, including water detected by NASA's LCROSS lunar impactor mission last fall. Chandrayaan-1 orbited the Moon for nearly a year in 2008 and 2009, carrying 11 instruments from India, Europe, and NASA.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Starship explodes during preparations for static-fire test
Posted: Sun, Jun 22 6:52 AM ET (1052 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Friday, July 11
Space Force developing new cloud-based digital environment for training
Defensescoop — 8:08 am ET (1208 GMT) The battle over Colorado’s Space Command isn’t over, but it may be ending soon
Washington Examiner — 8:08 am ET (1208 GMT) Rocket Lab Selects Bollinger Shipyards to Support Modification of Neutron Landing Platform
Business Wire — 8:07 am ET (1207 GMT) Elon Musk's SpaceX set to launch Israel's Dror satellite
Globes Online — 8:04 am ET (1204 GMT) South Korea secures key step toward space partnership with Europe
Chosun Ilbo — 8:03 am ET (1203 GMT) |
