A Quote by Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal of Great Britain



Telescopes are in some ways like time machines...
They reveal galaxies so far away that their light has taken billions of years to reach us. We in astronomy have an advantage in studying the universe, in that we can actually see the past. We owe our existence to stars, because they make the atoms of which we are formed. So if you are romantic you can say we are literally starstuff. If you're less romantic you can say we're the nuclear waste from the fuel that makes stars shine. We've made so many advances in our understanding. A few centuries ago, the pioneer navigators learnt the size and shape of our Earth, and the layout of the continents. We are now just learning the dimensions and ingredients of our entire cosmoc, and can at last make some sense of our cosmic habitat.



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Friday, November 13, 2009

Its Official... Water found on Moon.

So finally after intensive study of the data collected from three different spacecrafts, NASA confirms the presence of Water on lunar surface. The findings of all three spacecrafts, Indias Chandrayaan-I, Cassini and the Deep Impact Spacecraft provide unambiguous evidence of the presence of water.



So how on this heavenly Earth(or should I say Moon) did this Water come from!!!

Per NASA, there is a potential for two types of water on the Moon.

Type 1: That was brought from outside sources, like water-bearing comets striking the lunar surface.
Type 2: Interaction of Solar winds with lunar rocks.


Type 2 explained: Rocks that make up lunar surface are 45% Oxygen combined with other silicate materials. The Solar wind is made up of protons and/or positively charged Hydrogen atoms. When the constant stream of solar particles emitted by the Sun travelling at 1/3rd the speed of light hit the lunar surface with enough force they break apart already existing oxygen bonds in the lunar soil and tend to form water.

Bottom line: GREAT news! H2O found on Moon.


Courtesy: nasa.gov

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