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Aliens!

RolandRat

Graduate Poster
RolandRat
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"Nasa will hold a major event to announce an “exciting new discovery” about the Moon, it has said.

The space agency did not reveal details about the discovery but suggested that it “contributes to Nasa’s efforts to learn about the Moon in support of deep space exploration”.

It also said that the discovery had come from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or Sofia.

Because it goes above 99 per cent of the water vapour in the atmosphere, which normally obscures our view of space, the flying observatory is able to “pick up phenomenon impossible to see with visible light”, Nasa noted in its announcement."

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/worl...news-about-the-moon/ar-BB1agG7v?ocid=msedgdhp

Sounds interesting. Anyone have any idea what it might be?
 
Maybe this thread should have been posted in Humour. Then maybe it might get serious scientific responses. :-P

Anyway, it annoys me that NASA keeps trying to conflate Moon research with deep space exploration. Each moon and planet in the solar system presents a unique operating environment. Meanwhile, most of the solar system is empty space.

My bet is that this announcement won't be nearly as significant as NASA makes it out to be.
 
RolandRat said:
Just thought from the hint they seem to be giving that one of you intelligent peeps might have a theory :)
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Maybe we can get a hint from those who will be at the presser:
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-announce-new-science-results-about-moon

Briefing participants are:

Paul Hertz, Astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters, Washington
Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters
Casey Honniball, postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
Naseem Rangwala, project scientist for the SOFIA mission, NASA’s Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, California

. . .

As the world’s largest airborne observatory, SOFIA is a modified 747 that flies high in the atmosphere to provide its nearly 9-foot telescope with a clear view of the universe and objects in our solar system. Flying above 99% of the atmosphere’s obscuring water vapor, SOFIA observes in infrared wavelengths and can detect phenomena impossible to see with visible light.
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So it's an infrared telescope mounted on an airplane and sees wavelengths of light that would be difficult for ground-based telescopes to see due to water vapor in the atmosphere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratospheric_Observatory_for_Infrared_Astronomy

The primary science objectives of SOFIA are to study the composition of planetary atmospheres and surfaces; to investigate the structure, evolution and composition of comets; to determine the physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium; and to explore the formation of stars and other stellar objects. While SOFIA aircraft operations are managed by NASA Dryden, NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, is home to the SOFIA Science Center which will manage mission planning for the program.[11] On 29 June 2015, the dwarf planet Pluto passed between a distant star and the Earth producing a shadow on the Earth near New Zealand that allowed SOFIA to study the atmosphere of Pluto.[35]

In early 2016, SOFIA detected atomic oxygen in the Atmosphere of Mars for the first time in 40 years.[36] In early 2017, its observations of 1 Ceres in the mid-infrared helped determine the large asteroid/dwarf planet was coated with a layer of asteroid dust from other bodies.[37] In July 2017, SOFIA observed a star occultation of the distant Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth while ground based observatories failed this observation, preparing the probe New Horizons visiting this asteroid.

Sofia has been used also for Astrobiology missions, focusing amongst other goals on the observation of new planetary systems and the detection of complex molecules.[38]
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Given that, it could be that they detected something on the surface of the moon.
 
theprestige said:
Maybe this thread should have been posted in Humour. Then maybe it might get serious scientific responses. :-P

Anyway, it annoys me that NASA keeps trying to conflate Moon research with deep space exploration. Each moon and planet in the solar system presents a unique operating environment. Meanwhile, most of the solar system is empty space.

My bet is that this announcement won't be nearly as significant as NASA makes it out to be.
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The discovery of significant amounts of (somewhat) accessible water would have significant implications for long term stay on the moon and provision of propellant to go elsewhere without needing to get it all the way from Earth. Of course, that's very long term...
 
NASA sure love announcing that they are about to announce something.
 
3point14 said:
The discovery of significant amounts of (somewhat) accessible water would have significant implications for long term stay on the moon and provision of propellant to go elsewhere without needing to get it all the way from Earth. Of course, that's very long term...
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Water found on the sunlit surface, not just in cold dark places.

NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places.
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But it's just a few molecules scattered here and there. I was hoping for a least a swimming hole.
 
Heard a good way to describe the amount of water - it is 300 times less water than you’d find in the sands of the Sahara*



*Yes there are wet places in the Sahara
 
So they've found the H2O, have they? As long as they don't get to the stash of hooch.
 
Given that water has been found in shadow, and shadow moves across the entire surface of the moon, is anyone really surprised that trace amounts of water have been found in places that are currently in sunlight but had previously been in shadow?
 
Is it water that can be easily extracted through?

I believe that the figure I heard was about 12 ounces per cubic meter of regolith. Probably easier to just send water from earth unless there's pockets of ice.
 
Puppycow said:
Is it water that can be easily extracted through?

I believe that the figure I heard was about 12 ounces per cubic meter of regolith. Probably easier to just send water from earth unless there's pockets of ice.
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There seems to be, per NASA, reasonable amounts of of ice on the surface of the Moon in shaded areas, as well as subsurface. Do a Google for lots of info.
 
Puppycow said:
Is it water that can be easily extracted through?

I believe that the figure I heard was about 12 ounces per cubic meter of regolith. Probably easier to just send water from earth unless there's pockets of ice.
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Should be able to extract the water by heating the soil in a vacuum. The water will then evaporate. Would require lots of energy, but plenty of that on the moon. The soil can then have its metals removed. And if the metal is combined with oxygen then that is even better.
 
theprestige said:
If I understand their announcement correctly, we pretty much can't have any idea what it might be.
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Of course, it is very difficult for us to understand such things, because we are trying to use the data obtained by inference from fragmentary information about the structures of other celestial bodies. We are far from fully aware of all the processes that take place on our home planet, what to say about the Moon, or more distant objects. Of course, space probes help our scientists to conduct research, but to be honest, astronomy will have to develop for more than a dozen years until we accumulate real practical knowledge, when we can study the soil from the Moon, asteroids, and maybe the planets closest to us. Nowadays, more than one new space technology company is developing and we can hope that soon, thanks to the competition between states in space exploration, humanity will make a breakthrough.
 
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