A NASA radar found a reserve of 600,000 million liters of water near the north pole of the Moon

2024-03-22 18:05:00
A NASA radar found a reserve of 600,000 million liters of water near the north pole of the Moon (NASA)

NASA scientists found ice deposits near the Moon’s north pole containing 600 million metric tons of water.

NASA’s Mini-SAR, a lightweight synthetic aperture radar, found more than 40 small craters with water ice. The size of the craters ranges between 2 and 15 kilometers in diameter.

The radar traveled aboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.

Experts estimate there could be at least 600 million metric tons of water ice.

Mini-SAR took photographs of many of the permanently shadowed regions that exist at both poles of the Moons.

“These dark areas are extremely cold and it has been hypothesized that there could be large amounts of volatile material here, including water ice. The main scientific objective of the Mini-SAR experiment is to map and characterize the deposits that exist,” NASA said in a statement.

“The picture emerging from the multiple measurements and resulting data from instruments on lunar missions indicates that the creation, migration, deposition and retention of water is occurring on the Moon,” said Paul Spudis, principal investigator of the Mini-SAR experiment. at the Moon and Planetarium Institute of Houston.

NASA’s Mini-SAR, a lightweight synthetic aperture radar, found more than 40 small craters with water ice. The size of the craters ranges between 2 and 15 kilometers in diameter (NASA)

“The new discoveries show that the Moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought,” he added.

“After analyzing the data, our science team determined a strong indication of water ice, a finding that will give future missions a new target to further explore and exploit,” said Jason Crusan, Mini-RF program executive at NASA. NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington.

The Mini-SAR findings were published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

According to the statement from the US government agency responsible for the civil space program, “the results are consistent with recent findings from other NASA instruments and add to the growing scientific understanding of the multiple forms of water found on the Moon.” .

“The agency’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper discovered water molecules in the polar regions of the moon, while NASA’s Lunar Crater Detection and Observation Satellite, or LCROSS, detected water vapor,” the statement concludes.

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