Ice on the moon. DataAFF1 #367014 Ice was actually discovered on the moon. |
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+Citations (1)
- CitationsAdd new citationList by: CiterankMapLink[1] Ice on the Moon
Author: Dr. David R. Williams - NASA Cited by: Romualdo Devilla 3:36 AM 1 December 2014 GMT Citerank: (1) 367019Would not last long on moon.52C6C2B6 URL: |
Excerpt / Summary Where did the ice come from?
The Moon's surface is continuously bombarded by meteorites and micrometeorites. Many, if not most, of these impactors contain water ice, and the lunar craters show that many of these were very large objects. Any ice which survived impact would be scattered over the lunar surface. Most would be quickly vaporized by sunlight and lost to space, but some would end up inside the permanently shadowed craters, either by directly entering the crater or migrating over the surface as randomly moving individual molecules which would reach the craters and freeze there. Once inside the crater, the ice would be relatively stable, so over time the ice would collect in these "cold traps", and be buried to some extent by meteoritic gardening. Such a possibility was suggested as early as 1961 (6). However, loss of ice due to photodissociation, solar wind sputtering, and micrometeoroid gardening is not well quantified (7). |