ناسا: تؤكد علي موقعها اكتشاف جزيئات ماء علي سطح القمر

[زيزو1900]

These images show a very young lunar crater on the side of the moon that faces away from Earth, as viewed by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. Credits: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS/Brown Univ.
Full image and caption
See all images PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA scientists have discovered water molecules in the polar regions of the moon. Instruments aboard three separate spacecraft revealed water molecules in amounts that are greater than predicted, but still relatively small. Hydroxyl, a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom, also was found in the lunar soil. The findings were published in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.

NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3, instrument reported the observations. M3 was carried into space on Oct. 22, 2008, aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. Data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, or VIMS, on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and the High-Resolution Infrared Imaging Spectrometer on NASA's Epoxi spacecraft contributed to confirmation of the finding. The spacecraft imaging spectrometers made it possible to map lunar water more effectively than ever before.

The confirmation of elevated water molecules and hydroxyl at these concentrations in the moon's polar regions raises new questions about its origin and effect on the mineralogy of the moon. Answers to these questions will be studied and debated for years to come.

"Water ice on the moon has been something of a holy grail for lunar scientists for a very long time," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This surprising finding has come about through the ingenuity, perseverance and international cooperation between NASA and the India Space Research Organization."

From its perch in lunar orbit, M3's state-of-the-art spectrometer measured light reflecting off the moon's surface at infrared wavelengths, splitting the spectral colors of the lunar surface into small enough bits to reveal a new level of detail in surface composition. When the M3 science team analyzed data from the instrument, they found the wavelengths of light being absorbed were consistent with the absorption patterns for water molecules and hydroxyl.

"For silicate bodies, such features are typically attributed to water and hydroxyl-bearing materials," said Carle Pieters, M3's principal investigator from Brown University, Providence, R.I. "When we say 'water on the moon,' we are not talking about lakes, oceans or even puddles. Water on the moon means molecules of water and hydroxyl that interact with molecules of rock and dust specifically in the top millimeters of the moon's surface.

The M3 team found water molecules and hydroxyl at diverse areas of the sunlit region of the moon's surface, but the water signature appeared stronger at the moon's higher latitudes. Water molecules and hydroxyl previously were suspected in data from a Cassini flyby of the moon in 1999, but the findings were not published until now.

"The data from Cassini's VIMS instrument and M3 closely agree," said Roger Clark, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist in Denver and member of both the VIMS and M3 teams. "We see both water and hydroxyl. While the abundances are not precisely known, as much as 1,000 water molecule parts-per-million could be in the lunar soil. To put that into perspective, if you harvested one ton of the top layer of the moon's surface, you could get as much as 32 ounces of water."

For additional confirmation, scientists turned to the Epoxi mission while it was flying past the moon in June 2009 on its way to a November 2010 encounter with comet Hartley 2. The spacecraft not only confirmed the VIMS and M3 findings, but also expanded on them.

"With our extended spectral range and views over the north pole, we were able to explore the distribution of both water and hydroxyl as a function of temperature, latitude, composition, and time of day," said Jessica Sunshine of the University of Maryland. Sunshine is Epoxi's deputy principal investigator and a scientist on the M3 team. "Our analysis un*****ocally confirms the presence of these molecules on the moon's surface and reveals that the entire surface appears to be hydrated during at least some portion of the lunar day."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the M3 instrument, Cassini mission and Epoxi spacecraft for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Indian Space Research Organization built, launched and operated the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.

اللينك
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars/...n20090924.html

[زيزو1900]

NASA Spacecraft Sees Ice on Mars Exposed by Meteor Impacts
09.24.09



› Larger view
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed frozen water hiding just below the surface of mid-latitude Mars. The spacecraft's observations were obtained from orbit after meteorites excavated fresh craters on the Red Planet.

Scientists controlling instruments on the orbiter found bright ice exposed at five Martian sites with new craters that range in depth from approximately half a meter to 2.5 meters (1.5 feet to 8 feet). The craters did not exist in earlier images of the same sites. Some of the craters show a thin layer of bright ice atop darker underlying material. The bright *****es darkened in the weeks following initial observations, as the freshly exposed ice vaporized into the thin Martian atmosphere. One of the new craters had a bright ***** of material large enough for one of the orbiter's instruments to confirm it is water-ice.

The finds indicate water-ice occurs beneath Mars' surface halfway between the north pole and the equator, a lower latitude than expected in the Martian climate.

"This ice is a relic of a more humid climate from perhaps just several thousand years ago," said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Byrne is a member of the team operating the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, which captured the unprecedented images. Byrne and 17 co-authors report the findings in the Sept. 25 edition of the journal Science.

"We now know we can use new impact sites as probes to look for ice in the shallow subsurface," said Megan Kennedy of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, a co-author of the paper and member of the team operating the orbiter's Context Camera.

During a typical week, the Context Camera returns more than 200 images of Mars that cover a total area greater than California. The camera team examines each image, sometimes finding dark spots that fresh, small craters make in terrain covered with dust. Checking earlier photos of the same areas can confirm a feature is new. The team has found more than 100 fresh impact sites, mostly closer to the equator than the ones that revealed ice.

An image from the camera on Aug. 10, 2008, showed apparent cratering that occurred after an image of the same ground was taken 67 days earlier. The opportunity to study such a fresh impact site prompted a look by the orbiter's higher resolution camera on Sept. 12, 2008, confirming a cluster of small craters.

"Something unusual jumped out," Byrne said. "We observed bright material at the bottoms of the craters with a very distinct color. It looked a lot like ice."

The bright material at that site did not cover enough area for a spectrometer instrument on the orbiter to determine its composition. However, a Sept. 18, 2008, image of a different mid-latitude site showed a crater that had not existed eight months earlier. This crater had a larger area of bright material.

"We were excited about it, so we did a quick-turnaround observation," said co-author Kim Seelos of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "Everyone thought it was water-ice, but it was important to get the spectrum for confirmation."

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Scientist Rich Zurek, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said, "This mission is designed to facilitate coordination and quick response by the science teams. That makes it possible to detect and understand rapidly changing features."

The ice exposed by fresh impacts suggests that NASA's Viking Lander 2, digging into mid-latitude Mars in 1976, might have struck ice if it had dug 10 centimeters (4 inches) deeper. The Viking 2 mission, which consisted of an orbiter and a lander, launched in September 1975 and became one of the first two space probes to land successfully on the Martian surface. The Viking 1 and 2 landers characterized the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface. They also conducted on-the-spot biological tests for life on another planet.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. The Context Camera was built and is operated by Malin Space Science Systems. The University of Arizona operates the HiRISE camera, which Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colo., built. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory led the effort to build the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer and operates it in coordination with an international

اللينك
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MR...20090924r.html

[totta2010]

شكرا عالخبر
بس ياريت ترجمة
علشان انا ثقافتى المانى ماليش ف الانجلش

[زيزو1900]

خلاصه البحث
انهم لقو جليد علي سطح المريخ

واكتشفوا وجود الجليد دة في خمس حفر في المنطقه للي اتصورت من المركبه الفضائيه

و الحفر دى كل حفرة عمقها من نصف متر إلى 2.5 متر

والجليد دة اللي موجود جوة الحفر دى لامع وعليه طبقه من فوق مظلمه

والجزء اللامع دة بعد مدة قد تصل لاسابيع بيتحول للون المظلم

[زيزو1900]

نفس الخبر علي موقع الجمعيه الامريكيه للكميائيين

less than two weeks before a spacecraft is set to slam into the moon’s surface in search of water, a flurry of new reports from other spacecraft offer convincing evidence that the moon’s surface is lightly permeated with either water or its precursor, hydroxyl radicals. The possibility that water exists on the moon improves prospects that living things—including humans arriving on future space flights—might be able to survive there more easily than if the moon were dry. Although scientists found no evidence of water in lunar rocks brought back to Earth by Apollo astronauts, in the past few decades, the idea that stores of water ice might be cached in permanently shadowed craters at the moon’s poles has gained popularity.
Now, using a variety of instruments, international teams have found key spectral evidence that H+2O or HO• covers the moon’s surface (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1178658, 10.1126/science.1179788, and 10.1126/science.1178105). “These instruments make it possible to map the lunar hydrogen content on the surface as never before,” said James Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA headquarters, in Washington, D.C., at a press conference announcing the discovery.
Team scientists estimate the abundance of water at about 1,000 ppm, which is about a quart of water per ton of soil.
“Perhaps the most valuable result of these new observations is that they prompt a critical reexamination of the notion that the moon is dry,” writes astronomy professor Paul G. Lucey of the University of Hawaii in a perspective accompanying the papers. “It is not.”
The teams include a group led by Brown University planetary science professor Carle M. Pieters. She monitored visible and near-infrared wavelengths through NASA’s moon mineralogy mapper on Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the moon.
Another group, led by astronomer Jessica M. Sunshine of the University of Maryland, College Park, confirmed the results from Chandrayaan-1 using spectrometers on board NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft during that craft’s recent flybys of the moon.
And astronomer Roger N. Clark of the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver examined visible and IR data captured by the Saturn-exploring Cassini spacecraft during its lunar flyby in 1999 and also found spectral evidence of adsorbed H2O and HO•.
Coincidentally, on Oct. 9, NASA’s LCROSS spacecraft is slated to twice bombard the moon in search of water. The search focuses on the moon’s permanently dark crater, Cabeus A, located near the south pole because scientists believe that dark craters may contain relic frozen water from bombarding comets. First, the spacecraft will eject the spent second stage of its launch rocket, which will crash onto the surface, throwing up a large amount of debris. LCROSS and its sister spacecraft, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, will look for water in the ejected material. Then LCROSS itself will plunge to the surface, tossing up yet another plume.
The new reports, however, suggest that dark craters are not the only source of lunar water. Sunshine’s team proposes that the solar wind may provide an essential ingredient for surface water: energetic H+. In the team’s scenario, the H+ flux strikes the moon’s surface, releasing oxygen atoms bound to minerals in the soil, forming HO•, which can then easily form H2O. The group posits that as temperatures climb, more water molecules are released. Similarly, when temperatures decrease, water collects, creating a steady state.
Pieters cautioned in a statement that “when we say ‘water on the moon,’ we are not talking about lakes, oceans, or even puddles. Water on the moon means molecules of water and hydroxyl that interact with molecules of rock and dust in the top millimeters of the moon’s surface


اللينك
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/87/i39/8739notw1.html

[يالا بينا]

سبحان الله
"ويخلق مالاتعلمون"

[BaNZeR]

طيب انا دمجت الموضوعين لأنه فكرتهم واحدة تقريباً

وياريت لو عندك تفصيل مجمل ليهم بالعربي
عشان مينفعش اسيب المواضيع بالانجليزي كده