Astro Blog

Source:   NASA RELEASE: 09-222 Excerpt: 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. ... spacecraft imaging spectrometers made it possible to map lunar water more effectively than ever before. www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/sep/HQ_09-222_Moon_Water_Molecules.html

Source:   NSF Excerpt: Challenging conventional wisdom, new research finds that the number of sunspots provides an incomplete measure of changes in the Sun's impact on Earth over the course of the 11-year solar cycle. The study, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Michigan, finds that Earth was bombarded last year with high levels of solar energy at a time when the Sun was in an unusually quiet phase and sunspots had virtually disappeared.... www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp