Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface

isro.gov.in

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 90 posts

Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface

#61

Post by dang »

ye-olde-sysrq wrote: post #52
dang wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please edit provocations and swipes out of your comments here. The provocation "shithole" led to a bunch of flamewar that I'm certain you didn't intend, and yet your comment is responsible for starting it. (I've detached those subthreads as offtopic and collapsed them, but they can be found at the bottom of the page.) The site guidelines specifically include rules to prevent this kind of thing, so it would be good to…

I felt like it was okay-ish given he immediately qualified his own, nearby hometown with the same descriptor. I think it changed the effect from discriminatory to almost a term of chagrined endearment which lent weight to his subsequent commentary. Would I have written it myself? Probably not, especially given who recently popularized the term "shithole". But I think as a rhetorical device it did what he wanted it to…

That's nicely put and of course I agree! but the problem is that such subtleties don't survive the statistics of a large forum. Even if 95% of readers get it, the 5% who don't are enough to derail the thread. Even if 95% of that 5% are willing to move on, that leaves 0.25% of readers triggered—more than enough to turn any thread into a flamewar.

It's similar to this dynamic that comes up fairly often:

  User: $group is so $pejorative
  Mod:  Please don't post slurs to HN
  User: But I'm one of $group
It's fine conversation in a cohesive context (e.g. friends over drinks), but that's precisely what a large forum like HN is not. That's why we have to moderate comments by effect, not intent [1], and that's why the burden is on commenters to disambiguate their intent [2]. The cost is a certain blandness [3], but the alternative is the end of HN as an interesting place.

[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...

[2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

[3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface

#63

Post by empyrrhicist »

Jeff_Brown wrote: post #35
0xDEF wrote: post #24

It also found a a remarkable temperature gradient on the South Pole's surface. Even if the surface temperature is 60+ degree Celsius just 8 cm below the surface the temperature is -10 degree Celsius. (South Pole) Moon dust is a really good insulator.

That (60 C) is far hotter than I would have guessed. I realize the moon doesn't have an atmosphere, but at the south pole the light should be tangent to the surface. Is the probe not actually at -90 degrees latitude, and was this measurement taken at noon?

The moon is actually about the same albedo as asphalt. Gets hot in the sun.

Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface

#64

Post by SEJeff »

dxbydt wrote: post #4

There's a flurry on new info. In particular the variance of surface temperature at the lunar south pole, from 60 degree Celsius on the lunar surface, to -10 degree Celsius if you probe just 8cm below the surface https://nitter.net/pic/orig/media%2FF4hsyEQaEAAB-AS.png A whole seventy degree temperature difference over such a small height delta. There were a bunch of scientists trying to explain this on Indian news TV…

As a native born American (USA) and long time lover of al things space, I've always been of the opinion that ISRO really punches above their weight. You look at their success and resources vs Roscosmos and it is crazy. India has built a really good native launch capability for overall very affordable prices totally independently. It speaks extremely highly of the engineering and materials scientists in that program.

There's no need for this to be bittersweet. Use this as fuel to show that India can do better in other areas if they focus on it. Take the win :)

Also, every extraordinary or above average person starts out average at some point. The biggest differentiator is perseverance. He kept it up and look what he's doing now! It is amazing and as a fellow space fan I'm so happy to see what they are sharing from the Chandrayaan mission.

Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface

#65

Post by jacknobody »

meepmorp wrote: post #54
Matticus_Rex wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there? Hottest surface temp recorded on earth was 56.7C, no? And Death Valley isn't known for the presence of water (when it's anywhere close to that hot).

Hot springs in volcanically active areas?

Do you think that there might be hot springs on the Moon? Why not... our volcanoes on Earth bring water to the surface. That sounds like the kind of discovery that this mission is all about.

Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface

#66

Post by jacknobody »

photochemsyn wrote: post #3
amriksohata wrote: post #2

What is the significance of each element being found?

The main issue is detection of water, which would show up as hydrogen in the elemental analysis. Failure to detect hydrogen is probably the most significant result at present: https://www.space.com/chandrayaan-3-moon-south-pole-why-nasa...

Would we know already if water was coming up from the lunar depths?

Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface

#67

Post by Matticus_Rex »

jacknobody wrote: post #65
meepmorp wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hot springs in volcanically active areas?

Do you think that there might be hot springs on the Moon? Why not... our volcanoes on Earth bring water to the surface. That sounds like the kind of discovery that this mission is all about.

No hot springs without atmosphere, and we'd see vapor vents if there were something similar exposed to the surface, I think.

Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface

#68

Post by Matticus_Rex »

mattashii wrote: post #55
Matticus_Rex wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there? Hottest surface temp recorded on earth was 56.7C, no? And Death Valley isn't known for the presence of water (when it's anywhere close to that hot).

> Hottest surface temp recorded on earth was 56.7C, no? Hottest air temperature at just above surface level; excluding several localized extremes like measurements around vulcanos or asphalt roads. Asphalt surfaces can easily reach 60+°C on days with direct sunlight and little to no wind, and vulcanos supply new surface all the time with temperatures far north of 100°C.

And in both cases those surfaces would turn water into vapor, so no surface water.

Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface

#69

Post by photochemsyn »

dxbydt wrote: post #4

There's a flurry on new info. In particular the variance of surface temperature at the lunar south pole, from 60 degree Celsius on the lunar surface, to -10 degree Celsius if you probe just 8cm below the surface https://nitter.net/pic/orig/media%2FF4hsyEQaEAAB-AS.png A whole seventy degree temperature difference over such a small height delta. There were a bunch of scientists trying to explain this on Indian news TV…

Nice story. I watched the landing live it was quite exciting, it's great to see how the entire world is starting to join the space voyage.

Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface

#70

Post by photochemsyn »

jacknobody wrote: post #66
photochemsyn wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main issue is detection of water, which would show up as hydrogen in the elemental analysis. Failure to detect hydrogen is probably the most significant result at present: https://www.space.com/chandrayaan-3-moon-south-pole-why-nasa...

Would we know already if water was coming up from the lunar depths?

Probably the floors of craters never subjected to direct sunlight at the poles would be the most likely surface indication. The rover had to navigate around a crater, might have been the place to look if they had the capability.
Post reply on HN