By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer Alicia Chang, Ap Science Writer – Thu Oct 21, 9:22 pm ET
LOS ANGELES – When NASA blasted a hole in the moon last سال in تلاش of water, scientists figured there would be a splash. They just didn't know how big. Now new results from the Hollywood-esque moonshot reveal lots of water in a crater where the sun never shines — 41 gallons of ice and vapor.
That may not sound like much — it's what a typical washing machine uses for a load — but it's almost twice as much as researchers had initially measured and مزید than they ever expected to find.
The estimate represents only what scientists can see from the debris plume that was kicked up from the high-speed crash near the south pole سے طرف کی a NASA spacecraft on Oct. 9, 2009.
Mission chief scientist Anthony Colaprete of the NASA Ames Research Center calculates there could be 1 billion gallons of water in the crater that was hit — enough to fill 1,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
"Where we impacted was quite wet," Colaprete said, adding there could be مزید such craters at both the moon's poles.
Proof that the moon is dynamic and not a dry, desolate world offers hope for a possible future astronaut outpost where water on site could be used for drinking یا making rocket fuel.
But the scientists' excitement is tempered سے طرف کی the political reality that there's no plan to land on the moon anytime soon.
The $79 million moon mission known as the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, یا LCROSS, was launched to determine whether water exists at the moon's poles. گزشتہ spacecraft spied hints of possible ice in polar craters.
The mission involved slamming a spent rocket into Cabeus crater. The crash carved a hole about one quarter the size of a football field.
A trailing spacecraft then flew through the بادل of debris and dust thrown up سے طرف کی the impact and used its instruments to analyze what was inside before it also struck the moon.
Besides water, the plume also contained carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ammonia, sodium, mercury and silver. The findings were published in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
How the سوپ of compounds became trapped in Cabeus crater, among the coldest places in the solar system, is unclear. One theory is that they came from comets and asteroids, which pounded the lunar surface billions of years ago, and later drifted to the poles.
Mission scientist Kurt Retherford of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, thinks the discovery of mercury could pose a challenge for any human settlers because of its toxicity.
But Colaprete, the mission chief scientist, کہا there are ways around the mercury dilemma.
"Just like we use filters on Earth to make sure our drinking water is clean, we will do the same on the moon. We can distill یا purify it," he said.
Apollo astronauts previously found traces of silver and سونا in lunar samples facing the Earth. Specks of silver in the frigid polar crater are "not going to start the اگلے `silver rush' to the moon," کہا planetary geologist Peter Schultz of Brown University, who analyzed the plume.
While scientists celebrated the copious data returned to Earth, the highly hyped mission last سال was a public relations bomb. Scores of space شائقین who stayed up all night to glimpse NASA's promised debris plume through webcast یا telescopes saw little مزید than a fuzzy white flash.
LCROSS was originally hatched as a robotic mission before a future human trip. That was before Congress approved a blueprint last ماہ for NASA that shifts the focus from a manned moon landing — as outlined under President George W. بش — in favor of sending astronauts to near-Earth asteroids and eventually Mars. A return to the moon could potentially be a way station — something still to be decided — but the moon won't be an مجموعی طور پر goal.
دیا the حالیہ water find, "it's disappointing that we're not going to forge ahead" with a moon return اگلے decade, کہا space scientist Greg Delory of the یونیورسٹی of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the project.
But he believes that "when the time is right, we're going to send people there again."
LOS ANGELES – When NASA blasted a hole in the moon last سال in تلاش of water, scientists figured there would be a splash. They just didn't know how big. Now new results from the Hollywood-esque moonshot reveal lots of water in a crater where the sun never shines — 41 gallons of ice and vapor.
That may not sound like much — it's what a typical washing machine uses for a load — but it's almost twice as much as researchers had initially measured and مزید than they ever expected to find.
The estimate represents only what scientists can see from the debris plume that was kicked up from the high-speed crash near the south pole سے طرف کی a NASA spacecraft on Oct. 9, 2009.
Mission chief scientist Anthony Colaprete of the NASA Ames Research Center calculates there could be 1 billion gallons of water in the crater that was hit — enough to fill 1,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
"Where we impacted was quite wet," Colaprete said, adding there could be مزید such craters at both the moon's poles.
Proof that the moon is dynamic and not a dry, desolate world offers hope for a possible future astronaut outpost where water on site could be used for drinking یا making rocket fuel.
But the scientists' excitement is tempered سے طرف کی the political reality that there's no plan to land on the moon anytime soon.
The $79 million moon mission known as the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, یا LCROSS, was launched to determine whether water exists at the moon's poles. گزشتہ spacecraft spied hints of possible ice in polar craters.
The mission involved slamming a spent rocket into Cabeus crater. The crash carved a hole about one quarter the size of a football field.
A trailing spacecraft then flew through the بادل of debris and dust thrown up سے طرف کی the impact and used its instruments to analyze what was inside before it also struck the moon.
Besides water, the plume also contained carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ammonia, sodium, mercury and silver. The findings were published in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
How the سوپ of compounds became trapped in Cabeus crater, among the coldest places in the solar system, is unclear. One theory is that they came from comets and asteroids, which pounded the lunar surface billions of years ago, and later drifted to the poles.
Mission scientist Kurt Retherford of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, thinks the discovery of mercury could pose a challenge for any human settlers because of its toxicity.
But Colaprete, the mission chief scientist, کہا there are ways around the mercury dilemma.
"Just like we use filters on Earth to make sure our drinking water is clean, we will do the same on the moon. We can distill یا purify it," he said.
Apollo astronauts previously found traces of silver and سونا in lunar samples facing the Earth. Specks of silver in the frigid polar crater are "not going to start the اگلے `silver rush' to the moon," کہا planetary geologist Peter Schultz of Brown University, who analyzed the plume.
While scientists celebrated the copious data returned to Earth, the highly hyped mission last سال was a public relations bomb. Scores of space شائقین who stayed up all night to glimpse NASA's promised debris plume through webcast یا telescopes saw little مزید than a fuzzy white flash.
LCROSS was originally hatched as a robotic mission before a future human trip. That was before Congress approved a blueprint last ماہ for NASA that shifts the focus from a manned moon landing — as outlined under President George W. بش — in favor of sending astronauts to near-Earth asteroids and eventually Mars. A return to the moon could potentially be a way station — something still to be decided — but the moon won't be an مجموعی طور پر goal.
دیا the حالیہ water find, "it's disappointing that we're not going to forge ahead" with a moon return اگلے decade, کہا space scientist Greg Delory of the یونیورسٹی of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the project.
But he believes that "when the time is right, we're going to send people there again."
Elena’s doctor was driving on the road. There was not many traffic, so she’d be at work fast. Then she’d have some time to do some paperwork.
The radio was playing lame music, so she looked for a CD. While she put Switchfoot in the CD-player, she had her eyes off the road for two seconds. When she looked up again she screamed.
There was a woman standing in the middle of the road. She had long, dark blonde hair, green eyes and she looked rather pale.
The doctor braked and her car made a few turns before it stood still. Before she got out she needed to get her دل beat under control.
Her door opened and a familiar man appeared.
“Are آپ all right?” Alaric asked concerned.
The doctor nodded heavy, breathing fast.
“What happened?” Alaric asked.
She looked at Alaric, thinking he’d think she’s crazy.
“I thought I saw a ghost” she کہا quickly as if it wouldn’t sound so insane if she کہا it fast.
The radio was playing lame music, so she looked for a CD. While she put Switchfoot in the CD-player, she had her eyes off the road for two seconds. When she looked up again she screamed.
There was a woman standing in the middle of the road. She had long, dark blonde hair, green eyes and she looked rather pale.
The doctor braked and her car made a few turns before it stood still. Before she got out she needed to get her دل beat under control.
Her door opened and a familiar man appeared.
“Are آپ all right?” Alaric asked concerned.
The doctor nodded heavy, breathing fast.
“What happened?” Alaric asked.
She looked at Alaric, thinking he’d think she’s crazy.
“I thought I saw a ghost” she کہا quickly as if it wouldn’t sound so insane if she کہا it fast.
Dean and Sam were in the waiting room of the hospital, both drinking coffee. There was no way any of them could sleep now.
Kevin and Alexia entered the hospital. They had informed Anna about Cas’ disastrous acting and she had directed them to Sam and Dean.
“Hey” Kevin said. Sam looked up.
“Kevin! What are آپ doing here? I thought آپ were hiding from Crowley” Sam exclaimed hoarse. He was getting tired.
“Yeah, I was, but something came up” Kevin explained. He sat down اگلے to Sam and Alexia اگلے to Dean. “We had a little visit from our old friend Cas”
“You know where he is?” Dean asked urgent.
“Not anymore” Kevin commented. “He destroyed the tablets”
“He what?” Sam exclaimed surprised.
“He destroyed the tablets” Alexia repeated. “And then he took off. Anna went out looking for him, but she needs آپ two to get Meg to fess up. Get her to talk”
Kevin and Alexia entered the hospital. They had informed Anna about Cas’ disastrous acting and she had directed them to Sam and Dean.
“Hey” Kevin said. Sam looked up.
“Kevin! What are آپ doing here? I thought آپ were hiding from Crowley” Sam exclaimed hoarse. He was getting tired.
“Yeah, I was, but something came up” Kevin explained. He sat down اگلے to Sam and Alexia اگلے to Dean. “We had a little visit from our old friend Cas”
“You know where he is?” Dean asked urgent.
“Not anymore” Kevin commented. “He destroyed the tablets”
“He what?” Sam exclaimed surprised.
“He destroyed the tablets” Alexia repeated. “And then he took off. Anna went out looking for him, but she needs آپ two to get Meg to fess up. Get her to talk”
Heather’s upper body was covered with needles and each time Meg thought they’d reached the bottom the needles miraculously piled up.
Heather turned her head carefully to her ex-colleague. “Please, make him stop. I’ve done nothing wrong” she cried quietly.
“You made me a drugs addict” Cas reminded her. “I bashed my own head against a toilet and I almost got Meg killed, because of your needles”
“I’m sorry” Heather کہا weak. “I just wanted to help you, I swear”
Cas grabbed another needle and drove it in her thy, making Heather moan, which made Meg shiver.
“Don’t آپ think that’s enough?” she کہا careful.
“No” Cas snapped back. “It’ll be enough when there are no مزید needles left”
“But they keep piling up!” Meg exclaimed.
“They’ll stop piling up when the whore’s death” Cas clarified.
Meg shook her head in horror. “What has gotten into you?”
Heather turned her head carefully to her ex-colleague. “Please, make him stop. I’ve done nothing wrong” she cried quietly.
“You made me a drugs addict” Cas reminded her. “I bashed my own head against a toilet and I almost got Meg killed, because of your needles”
“I’m sorry” Heather کہا weak. “I just wanted to help you, I swear”
Cas grabbed another needle and drove it in her thy, making Heather moan, which made Meg shiver.
“Don’t آپ think that’s enough?” she کہا careful.
“No” Cas snapped back. “It’ll be enough when there are no مزید needles left”
“But they keep piling up!” Meg exclaimed.
“They’ll stop piling up when the whore’s death” Cas clarified.
Meg shook her head in horror. “What has gotten into you?”