I was going to write a post about how scientists have found a significant amount of water in some lunar rocks — a HUGE surprise — and how an ancient impact turned Mars into an egg, but wouldn’t you know it, just like when it comes to all things planetary, Emily beat me to it. Good thing I like her.
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July 10th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I’d bet that the impact theory will also be raised to account for the presence of water in the Moon’s mantle, too! (if the only tool you have is a bolide, every problem you have starts to look like an astrobleme)
And speaking of the moon, have you seen the video series “The Googling” on YouTube? Hilarious.
Part II … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYVLpC_8SQE
July 10th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Emily scoops you yet again!
*Turns back and crosses arms*
I’m beginning to wonder why I come here at all.
J/K
July 10th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Wow I must be psycho err…psychic, I just said this last week on the blog entry about Phoenix possibly shorting out:
Look at it this way, if the ability to examine the lunar rocks was left with only the technology available in 1969, a number of things wouldn’t have been possible. They are still studying the rocks returned. So if we look at the robots, they only the set of tools sent with them, they can’t be improved upon. Get the rocks back here, they can be studied over years with new methods as they are developed.
Now I wonder if cometary impacts after the moon had started congealing might have been enough to get the water down into the subsurface layers. And a further question (I only read the BBC’s report not Emily’s so forgive if these have been raised and answered on her blog…my next stop) since those glass spheres are from very near the surface might they have been formed by cometary impacts again. Or if there water in the spheres was formed in the impact that formed the moon.
Dang it I’ll have to do some research on astronomy again. I always seem to learn when I do that.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I was reading about this yesterday and was hoping you’d post about it. I’ll just read Emily’s post then
July 10th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Very cool. Water on the moon, albiet in tiny amounts. Now we can start building a base on the moon yeah !?!? NO !?!? Aww come on !!
If we try to send people to Mars before we set up a working base on the moon first, then humans are stupid.
July 10th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I dunno about you, quasidog, but it doesn’t take multibillion dollar missions to tell me that fundamental truth.
July 10th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
First we have a collision that hit Earth and formed the Moon. Now we have a collision that hit Mars to give it the characteristic shape. Next you’ll be telling me that Venus used to be a comet.
Actually, could the impact scenario account for the current absence of the water that is supposed to have been on Mars? What is the age of the impact in relation to the water history we can see?
July 10th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
One thing pops into my head about this;
Moon hoax believers will use this recent finding of water on the moon agains those that support reality about Apollo, as it has been told to them that the rocks found by the astronauts were not in a hydrated enviroment.
As for Mars, one can just imagine the sight of a giant impact that created the structure we see today!
How would you describe it Phil?
July 10th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I’ve often looked at the Tharsis Bulge and wondered about its origin and why the whole southern hemisphere is a highland. The impact theory has always been my favored explanation, and it’s fantastic that there’s good evidence for it now. I did not know that the Tharsis region kept the axis like it is. I know the Earth’s axis is stabilized in part by the Moon, and Mars’s axis is of similar inclination but it doesn’t have a massive satellite to stabilize it. You keep posting stuff, and I’ll keep learning stuff.
July 11th, 2008 at 12:52 am
ROFLingMAO @ norm!
July 11th, 2008 at 7:26 am
In light of this I was glad to see this on todays news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7500371.stm
Lets get some samples back from Mars so we have the material here to test and examine anew as these new techniques become available.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Water, water, everywhere – but not a drop to drink. (Because we allowed ourselves to abandon the dream of space because of a schoolteacher and a bill no politician was willing to pay.)
This is awesome – first Mars, then Mercury, and now the Moon. I wonder.. does Venus have water vapor? Seems unlikely but just a couple of months ago I wouldn’t have guessed that Mercury or the Moon had it either.