a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

[inojokeyou]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

sweet

[Dr Tran]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

Because that's what America needs the most right now.

wasnt talking about now

[Bluearrowll]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

This is awesome

[Gundam-Dude]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

very cool discovery

moonbases would be amazing

[Kibblre]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

Vacation on the moon, anybody?

I agree A2P, why the hell isn't this on the news?

[MrRubix]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

Am I the only one not really surprised by this news? I bet they'd find cool **** if they bored into Titan, too.

[MrGiggles]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

Am I the only one not really surprised by this news? I bet they'd find cool **** if they bored into Titan, too.

Five bucks says Io is filled with candy.

[Patashu]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

IIRC the water on the moon isn't anything to write home about b/c it's evenly distributed through the surface and very low density, meaning there's no efficient way to extract it

[bmah]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

IIRC the water on the moon isn't anything to write home about b/c it's evenly distributed through the surface and very low density, meaning there's no efficient way to extract it

But we're talking about a fairly large patch of frozen ice that was discovered, not trace amounts that may occur throughout the planetary body.

And this isn't news to be surprised about - water in the form of ice was already found on the moon (and potentially other moons such Jupiter's Europa), but the point here is that a "significant" amount was found. Enough to make more than scientists interested I guess.

[MrGiggles]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

They found two gallons in a thirty-meter crater.

I guess if we dropped like 25 more bombs we could take a shower on the moon.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

Would it be possible for water to be naturally created if the gasses are present? This is just a question I came up with, and the chemical formula for water is H2O, so if both hydrogen and oxygen are present and given certain temperatures and conditions, would it be possible for them to form water?

If this is the case, it's possible water can be found anywhere where friendly conditions exist, outside of the moon, and outside of Earth.

[Dr Tran]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

They found two gallons in a thirty-meter crater.

I guess if we dropped like 25 more bombs we could take a shower on the moon.

they found a dozen 2 gallon buckets worth of water

[MrGiggles]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

they found a dozen 2 gallon buckets worth of water

My bad. I misread that. That's a significant difference.

[MrRubix]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

Would it be possible for water to be naturally created if the gasses are present? This is just a question I came up with, and the chemical formula for water is H2O, so if both hydrogen and oxygen are present and given certain temperatures and conditions, would it be possible for them to form water?

If this is the case, it's possible water can be found anywhere where friendly conditions exist, outside of the moon, and outside of Earth.

There is a certain energy "barrier" that needs to be surpassed in order for H2 and O2 to break apart and recombine to form H2O. You can either add brute energy to generate the heat necessary to kick-start it, or you can catalyze it (say with platinum) so that the energy barrier is not as high. You can even burn hydrogen in air and get water if you know what you're doing.

The reverse of this process (breaking H2O into H2 and O2 gases) is called electrolysis.

Also, it's worth noting that the presence of water on a planet does depend on pressure, which is dependent on the size of the planet. If the planet's huge, water may actually be solid at high temperatures because of gravity.

Either way, the conditions can be somewhat picky when it comes to what contributes to the type of materials found on a planet or moon. It's why we can clearly see all sorts of different planet/moon types in our solar systems. Just look at Jupiter's moons -- they're all so different from one another.

But the question you bring up gives a good example for why I believe it's almost 100% certain that there is life on other planets. Maybe not in our particular galaxy, or even within hundreds of light years -- otherwise we would have detected radio waves (the other possibility though is that civilizations in general don't last very long, whether through annihilation or resource depletion, etc) -- but when you consider how many galaxies there are, and how many stars (and thus planets) are in each galaxy, you're looking at a countless number of permutations. Earth just happens to be one such permutation that is conducive to life, and there's no doubt in my mind that there are plenty of other planets equally capable of supporting life. Hell, there may even be an entirely different environment conducive to an entirely different type of lifeform (say, silicon-based).

[MrRubix]

Re: a "significant" amount of frozen water now found on the moon

lol I told a friend we missile'd the moon and he didn't believe me at all