21–30 of 34 posts
>We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon Doesn't every part of the Moon get some sunlight over the lunar cycle?
Tidal forces from Earth have slowed the Moon's rotation to the point where the same side is always facing the Earth—a phenomenon called tidal locking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_side_of_the_Moon
> concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million – roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water – trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface This is incredible. Is there speculation that there could be a resevoir of ice underneath the soil? As in, could they dig a well and attempt to melt it (somehow) for collection?
It blows my mind a little bit that spectrosocopy is a thing that just happens to be afforded us by physics, and how much less we'd know about the universe if it didn't exist. "Oh, every element has a totally unique signature and all you need to do is look at it to tell what it is, no matter how many miles or light-years away." It's the kind of thing where if it only existed in a sci-fi novel, it would be considered a…
What blows my mind is how little spectroscopy fingerprint data is available in the public domain! To wit, considering how ubiquitous camera sensors are, you'd think that we'd have the ability to do spectrosocopic analysis on our smart phones with a simple/cheap adapter by now.
I am fairly certain that this does exist, I remember almost purchasing a spectroscopy adapter for my iPhone way back around 2014. I didn't buy it and I guess it wasn't too popular.
It blows my mind a little bit that spectrosocopy is a thing that just happens to be afforded us by physics, and how much less we'd know about the universe if it didn't exist. "Oh, every element has a totally unique signature and all you need to do is look at it to tell what it is, no matter how many miles or light-years away." It's the kind of thing where if it only existed in a sci-fi novel, it would be considered a…
It blows my mind a little bit that spectrosocopy is a thing that just happens to be afforded us by physics, and how much less we'd know about the universe if it didn't exist. "Oh, every element has a totally unique signature and all you need to do is look at it to tell what it is, no matter how many miles or light-years away." It's the kind of thing where if it only existed in a sci-fi novel, it would be considered a…
What blows my mind is how little spectroscopy fingerprint data is available in the public domain! To wit, considering how ubiquitous camera sensors are, you'd think that we'd have the ability to do spectrosocopic analysis on our smart phones with a simple/cheap adapter by now.
It blows my mind a little bit that spectrosocopy is a thing that just happens to be afforded us by physics, and how much less we'd know about the universe if it didn't exist. "Oh, every element has a totally unique signature and all you need to do is look at it to tell what it is, no matter how many miles or light-years away." It's the kind of thing where if it only existed in a sci-fi novel, it would be considered a…
It's actually not all that surprising if you approach it from a different angle. Consider that light is nothing more than electromagnetic radiation; it is generated or absorbed only by changes in electromagnetic potential. Now also consider that electron orbitals in molecules are discrete and quantized: you can be in this orbital (with such-and-such potential energy) or in that orbital (with a slightly different pote…
If comets are icy things, and are constantly crashing into the Earth and the Moon, why shouldn't we expect water on the moon?
So, at least near the surface and on areas where the Sun light reaches, it's not obvious at all that we would find any water.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's actually not all that surprising if you approach it from a different angle. Consider that light is nothing more than electromagnetic radiation; it is generated or absorbed only by changes in electromagnetic potential. Now also consider that electron orbitals in molecules are discrete and quantized: you can be in this orbital (with such-and-such potential energy) or in that orbital (with a slightly different pote…
How are they able to see the signature water gives off through all the noise that other types of molecules must be sending back? Isn't there even more noise to deal with when doing this over even bigger distances?
> concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million – roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water – trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface This is incredible. Is there speculation that there could be a resevoir of ice underneath the soil? As in, could they dig a well and attempt to melt it (somehow) for collection?
It does seem reasonable that sub soil not heated to 260 degrees every two weeks for two weeks at a time would contain a lot more water. But when Lunar Prospector was crashed into Crater Shoemaker, the plume was mostly soil never exposed to sunlight and water density was minuscule.
I.e. for the amount you spend flying the plane around, and the increase in collecting area needed compared to going all the way to space (much smaller mirror if you just go to space), we could've gotten more by sending a 30cm satellite into orbit.
Is that right? Or am I out of date?