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Tag: moon rocks

  • Water Found on Moon’s Surface, More Could be Below

    Researchers from the Indian Space Research Organization this week have announced that the Chandrayaan-1 probe has founde evidence for water on the surface of the Earth’s moon. The water, referred to as “magmatic,” is locked in mineral grains and could come from somewhere beneath the moon’s surface.

    The new research, published recently in the journal Nature Geoscience, is the first time this particular type of water has been found from orbit, though magmatic water was found in surface samples obtained during NASA’s Apollo missions. These new findings suggest that earlier detections of lunar water were not, as previously thought, a contamination from Earth. The water was found near the moon’s equator, in a crater called Bullialdus that contained rocks geologists believe formed within the moon’s crust.

    “This rock, which normally resides deep beneath the surface, was excavated from the lunar depths by the impact that formed Bullialdus crater,” said Rachel Klima, lead author of the research paper and a planetary geologist at the Johns Hopkins University. “Compared to its surroundings, we found that the central portion of this crater contains a significant amount of hydroxyl – a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom — which is evidence that the rocks in this crater contain water that originated beneath the lunar surface,”

    Now that Klima and her colleagues have detected magmatic water on the moon, they are hoping the research will help geologists better understand the moon’s makeup. It could also provide researchers with new data on how the moon formed and how it reached its current state.

    “Now that we have detected water that is likely from the interior of the moon, we can start to compare this water with other characteristics of the lunar surface,” said Klima. “This internal magmatic water also provides clues about the moon’s volcanic processes and internal composition, which helps us address questions about how the moon formed, and how magmatic processes changed as it cooled.”

    (Image via Thinkstock)

  • NASA Releases New Photo From Apollo 17

    In December of 1972, Apollo 17 left the moons surface and to this date no human has been back to step foot on the lunar surface. Moves have been made in the last few years to solve this problem with things going as far as Newt Gingrich calling for a permanent colony on the moon by the year 2020.

    After all of this time, NASA decided to release a new color photo of Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt. He is one of the last two men to ever step foot on the moon. The gorgeous shot was taken by fellow astronaut Eugene Cernan, who was on the surface with Schmitt, while the third man on their mission, Ronald Evans, orbited the moon.

    The Apollo 17 astronauts brought home 110Kg of moon rocks which is by far the most of any Apollo mission. Schmitt and Cernan’s lunar rover is perched at the edge of Shorty Crater, near the spot where geologist Schmitt discovered orange moon soil.

    Check out this link to see a huge hi-res version of this photo from NASA.

  • Ubehebe Volcano Explosion In California Coming Soon

    Peri Sasnett of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University has lead a team of researchers to study Ubehebe. Ubehebe is a large volcanic crater in the north of Death Valley. Using technology taken from the dating of moon rocks, he believes the volcano was formed much earlier than previously thought.

    What he has also discovered is that the volcano is in the middle of an eruption cycle. Apparently these eruptions happen in clusters and the magma levels beneath the surface of the earth are much higher than expected. Essentially this thing could erupt at any time.

    In a very simplified explanation, there are water pools beneath the ground, the magma is rising, and once it hits the pools, steam will form and create pressure. Once enough pressure has built, the magma will erupt!

    So california residents can look forward to a very dangerous ecological event coming very soon. At last measurement, the magma was 500 feet below the water pool. Nobody knows how fast it’s rising.