NASA Missions Uncover The Moon's Buried Treasures

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Source:  4.1, 7.2, 8.3

Excerpt: …scientists… revealed new data uncovered by NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO. …evidence that the lunar soil within shadowy craters is rich in useful materials, and … has a water cycle. Scientists also confirmed the water was in the form of mostly pure ice crystals in some places. …"NASA has convincingly confirmed the presence of water ice and characterized its patchy distribution in permanently shadowed regions of the moon," said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist…. The twin impacts of LCROSS and a companion rocket stage in the moon's Cabeus crater on Oct. 9, 2009, lifted a plume of material that might not have seen direct sunlight for billions of years. As the plume traveled nearly 10 miles above the rim of Cabeus, instruments …made observations of the crater and debris and vapor clouds. After the impacts, grains of mostly pure water ice were lofted into the sunlight in the vacuum of space. …The instruments also discovered relatively large amounts of light metals such as sodium, mercury and possibly even silver… See alsowww.universetoday.com/76365/understanding-the-unusual-lcross-ejecta-plume/,www.universetoday.com/76329/water-on-the-moon-and-much-much-more-latest-lcross-results/, www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002728/

www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/oct/HQ_10-271_LCROSS_LRO.html

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