For the first time ever, scientists have identified water on the moon’s sunlit surface using SOFIA, an airborne observatory. Water on the moon also appears more widespread than previously thought.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Steven Arthur Sweet of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, captured the moon just past 1st quarter on October 23, 2020. See more of Steven’s work at Lunar 101-Moon Book.

Eureka! For the first time ever, scientists have identified water on the moon’s sunlit surface. They also found that water is more common on the moon than previously thought, with pockets of ice hiding in some of its darker, shadow-covered regions. A team of project scientists and leaders announced the news and discussed the exciting revelations during a conference held by NASA earlier today (Monday, October 26, 2020). Speakers also referenced the agency’s ambitious Artemis program, which aims to land astronauts at the moon’s south pole in the year 2024.

• EarthSky’s lunar calendar shows the moon phase for every day in 2021. Order yours before they’re gone! Makes a great gift.

Scientists have been finding signs of water on the moon since 2009 and, in 2018, confirmed the presence of water ice at the moon’s south pole, in craters that are in perpetual shadow. This water was already considered a possible future resource for astronauts on the moon. The announcement made today comes from two new studies that have detected water at one of the largest crater formations on the sunlit surface on the moon, and also revealed that the lunar surface could be harboring plentiful patches of hidden ice in “cold traps,” permanently shadowed areas on both sides of the moon.

Previous observations identified ice based on its spectral signature – the distinct “barcode” of its chemical composition – but that data doesn’t distinguish between water and hydroxyl bound to minerals on the lunar surface. With these new observations, researchers were able to single out the unique chemical signature of water near Clavius Crater, one of the largest crater formations on the moon. Paul Hertz, who leads NASA’s astrophysics division, said in a statement:

We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the moon. Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.

The Clavius crater on the moon as seen by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The SOFIA observatory has detected water ice in shadowed regions of this sunlit lunar location.

Image by NASA/ Moon Trek/ USGS/ LRO.

How the water then gets stored also raises some intriguing questions. The water could be trapped in tiny beadlike structures in the soil that form out of the high heat created by meteorite impacts. Another possibility is that the water could be hidden between grains of lunar soil and sheltered from the sunlight. Casey Honniball, the lead author who published the results from her graduate thesis work, said:

Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space, yet somehow we’re seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there.

The new discovery comes from an airborne observatory called the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, aka SOFIA, which rides aboard a German-American aircraft that made its first flight in 2007. The instrument used to pick up the specific wavelength unique to water molecules is called the Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope, or FORCAST.

FORCAST is packed aboard a modified 747 jet plane that carries its instruments up above most of Earth’s atmosphere, which offers some unique advantages. Earth’s atmosphere is both turbulent and turbid. For example, only radio and visible light pass easily through the different atmospheric layers, meaning that other wavelengths of light, such as infrared, are not easily captured using ground-based cameras. Infrared light, in particular, is absorbed at many wavelengths by water vapor in the Earth’s atmosphere, so most infrared telescopes are at high elevations in dry places, above as much of the atmosphere as possible. SOFIA’s instruments focus on infrared light, studying objects in our own solar system and beyond.

Unlike infrared telescopes in space – such as the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Herschel Space Observatory (both now retired) – SOFIA is relatively easy to upgrade since it returns routinely back to Earth, where it’s operated and maintained as necessary at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California. Each of the observatory’s flights lasts approximately 10 hours. SOFIA was grounded in mid-March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and only began flying again in mid-August, according to NASA statements. SOFIA has also struggled in the budgetary process over the past decade, as presidential budget requests have repeatedly selected the project for cancellation; Congress has reinstated it each time.

The announcement is relative to predictions that – beneath the surfaces of Mars, Venus and our own moon – there are majestic volcanic caves, or lava tubes, formed by flowing magma and covered in tiny crystals. These lunar caves could provide shelter for future lunar explorers, and NASA has been testing an exploratory cave rover toward that end. In any case, this new water discovery could prove monumental in humanity’s plans to not only return astronauts to the moon, but also to create long-term habitats on the lunar surface as well as a jumping-off point to Mars.

Hertz and Honniball were two of four speakers during today’s news conference. They were also joined by Naseem Rangwala, project scientist for the SOFIA mission at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, and Jacob Bleacher, a chief exploration scientist.

The SOFIA aircraft taking off.

Image by NASA.

• Bottom line: For the first time ever, scientists have identified water on the moon’s sunlit surface; they also have indications that the water is more widespread than previously thought. The discovery comes from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).
• Via NASA

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29-10-2020 om 01:20 geschreven door peter  

Special 'jellyfish galaxies' feed their supermassive black holes with enormous 'tentacles' of gas and stars

• 'Jellyfish galaxies' have extremely long tentacles of gas and stars
• A study found these tentacles make the galaxies easy for black holes to feed on
• This helps to explain why many supermassive black holes do not appear active 
• One in seven of the jellyfish galaxies studied were fuelling supermassive black holes (AGN) 

By ABIGAIL BEALL FOR MAILONLINE

At the centre of many galaxies there is a supermassive black hole, which can be anything between 1,000 and one billion times the mass of our sun.

But not all these supermassive black holes are active, feeding on galaxies and shining brightly - and the reason why is a mystery.

Now, researchers have come closer to solving the mystery, by discovering a previously unknown way that supermassive black holes can 'feed'.

The team studied the central black holes within special 'jellyfish galaxies', which are named after their long tentacles of gas and stars.

They found that the mechanism that produces the 'tentacles' that give these galaxies their nickname also makes it possible for the gas to reach the central regions of the galaxies, feeding the black hole and causing it to shine brilliantly.

Scroll down for video 

This image shows a jellyfish galaxy, nicknamed JW206. Material is seen streaming out of the galaxy in long tendrils. Red shows the glow from ionised hydrogen gas and the whiter regions are where most of the stars in the galaxy are located

'These MUSE observations suggest a novel mechanism for gas to be funnelled towards the black hole's neighbourhood,' said Dr Yara Jaffé, co-author of the study, from the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

'This result is important because it provides a new piece in the puzzle of the poorly understood connections between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies.'

When a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy is active, it is called an active galactic nuclei (AGN).

On average, less than a tenth of galaxies are found to have AGN at their centre. 

However, the new study found six out of seven of a special type of galaxy feed brightly shining supermassive black holes.

These galaxies, known as jellyfish galaxies, have extremely long tentacles of stars and gas – extending for tens of thousands of light years.

Scientists found that the mechanism that produces the 'tentacles' that give jellyfish galaxies their nickname also makes it possible for the gas to reach the central regions of the galaxies, feeding the black hole and causing it to shine brilliantly

The team studied the central black holes within special 'jellyfish galaxies', which are named after their long tentacles of gas and stars. This image shows a jellyfish galaxy in the three-dimensional view of the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope.

These tentacles are made by a process called ram pressure stripping, in galaxy clusters.

'This strong link between ram pressure stripping and active black holes was not predicted and has never been reported before,' said team leader Dr Bianca Poggianti from the INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Padova in Italy.

'It seems that the central black hole is being fed because some of the gas, rather than being removed, reaches the galaxy centre.'

But this is only the beginning - the study is part of a much more extensive experiment looking at many more jellyfish galaxies, which is currently in progress.

An Italian-led team made the finding while observing jellyfish galaxies (pictured) using the MUSE (Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) instrument on the Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile

'This survey, when completed, will reveal how many, and which, gas-rich galaxies entering clusters go through a period of increased activity at their cores,' says Dr Poggianti.

'A long-standing puzzle in astronomy has been to understand how galaxies form and change in our expanding and evolving Universe.

'Jellyfish galaxies are a key to understanding galaxy evolution as they are galaxies caught in the middle of a dramatic transformation.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

29-10-2020 om 00:57 geschreven door peter  

View larger. | The galaxy JO206 and its ordered magnetic field (green lines) along its gas tail. The pink objects characterize H-alpha emission, a type of emission that suggests the formation of new stars.

Image via ESO/ GASP collaboration/ AIP.

Jellyfish galaxies are thought to take on their unique structure when they travel through the centers of galaxy clusters. As they move through, their motion pushes interstellar gas in the opposite direction, forming a gas tail that gives jellyfish galaxies their appearance of “tentacles” (really, stars and gas) and hence their name. Earlier studies indicated rapid star formation in the gas tails of jellyfish galaxies. And so astronomers began wondering about the role played by the jellyfish galaxies’ magnetic fields, especially since magnetic fields’ contribution to the process of star formation is an area of active research.

But the tails of jellyfish galaxies have been difficult to study due to their low brightness. That’s why galactic astronomers might have issued a satisfied collective “hmmmm!” this week (October 26, 2020), when a team in Europe announced the results of their careful analysis of the magnetic field structure of the tail of a jellyfish galaxy known as JO206. They found the magnetic field aligned very precisely along the galaxy’s “tentacles,” or tail, where active star formation is taking place.

The German-Italian team that conducted the study had their results published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy. Lead author was Ancla Müller from the Ruhr University Bochum. Müller explained:

As the galaxy falls on the center of the galaxy cluster, an interaction takes place with the medium between the individual galaxies and its magnetic field.

• The 2021 lunar calendars are here! Order yours before they’re gone. Makes a great gift!

The magnetic fields of galaxies are an area of active research. Here’s an image from SOFIA showing celestial dust grains, which are aligned perpendicular to magnetic field lines at the center of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. 

Read more about this photo.

Image via NASA/ SOFIA/ L. Proudfit; ESA/ Herschel; Hubble Space Telescope.

In order to explain this interaction, the team used computer simulations together with their polarization data observed with the VLA, to develop a theory. Their scenario involves the jellyfish galaxy JO206 rushing at high speed to the center of the galaxy cluster, causing its own magnetic fields to interact with those in the cluster. Meanwhile, hot winds from the space between the galaxies is collecting, they said, as accumulations of plasma (not solid, not liquid, not gas, but a fourth state of matter) on the outside of the newly formed tail of the jellyfish galaxy. Co-author Christoph Pfrommer of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam explained that the magnetic layer surrounding the tail protects it from falling apart:

As the jellyfish galaxy flies through the galaxy cluster, its magnetic field wraps around the galaxy like a mantle and is further strengthened and smoothed by the high speed of the galaxy and by cooling effects.

Ancla Müller added:

This would provide enough material for star formation. It should be fascinating to see whether this picture can be confirmed by further measurements on other objects.

Astronomer Bianca Poggianti of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics – whose earlier study had shown that stars can form in the gas tails of jellyfish galaxies, and who is a co-author on the current paper – concluded:

To verify the hypotheses suggested by the observations of the jellyfish galaxy JO206 we are observing other galaxies with similar tails using radio telescopes in Australia, South Africa and the United States.

The observation of the magnetic field of JO206 is the first and so far the only investigation of its kind in a jellyfish galaxy. We need more observations to understand if the discovered phenomenon is common or exceptional. This will also allow us to understand what connection exists between the magnetic field and the star formation outside the galaxy disks.

Here’s another jellyfish galaxy. This one is called ESO 137-001. This image was obtained using Hubble Space Telescope observations, combined with data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Image via NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center.

• Bottom line: A team in Europe announced the results of their careful analysis of the magnetic field structure of the tail of a jellyfish galaxy known as JO206. They found the magnetic field aligned very precisely along the galaxy’s “tentacles,” or tail, where active star formation is taking place.
• Via RUB
• Via AIP

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

29-10-2020 om 00:34 geschreven door peter  

China chooses landing site for its Tianwen-1 Mars rover

{ https://www.space.com/ }

28-10-2020 om 23:58 geschreven door peter  

In the hunt for Planet Nine, astronomers eye a new search technique for the elusive world

Finding Planet Nine may require looking at telescope images in a different light.

© Provided by Live Science Artist's illustration of Planet Nine, a world about 10 times more massive than Earth that may lie undiscovered in the far outer solar system.

Astronomers are vetting a "shifting and stacking" technique that could aid the hunt for the putative world, which some researchers think lurks undiscovered in the far outer system, way beyond Pluto's orbit. 

The strategy involves shifting space-telescope images along sets of possible orbital paths, then stacking the photos together to combine their light. The technique has already been used to discover some moons in our solar system, and it could potentially spot Planet Nine — also known as Planet X, Giant Planet Five or Planet Next — and other extremely farflung objects, researchers said.

• Related: The evidence for 'Planet Nine' in our solar system (gallery)

"You really can’t see them without using this kind of method," Malena Rice, an astronomy Ph.D. student at Yale University in Connecticut, said in a statement. "If Planet Nine is out there, it’s going to be incredibly dim."

Rice is lead author of a new study that put the method into action. She and co-author Greg Laughlin, an astronomy professor at Yale, shifted and stacked images captured by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which hunts for alien worlds from Earth orbit. 

In a test, the researchers found the faint signals of three known trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) — small bodies that circle the sun beyond Neptune's orbit — in shifted and stacked TESS images. The scientists then conducted a blind search of two distant patches of sky, turning up 17 new TNO candidates.

"If even one of these candidate objects is real, it would help us to understand the dynamics of the outer solar system and the likely properties of Planet Nine," Rice said. "It’s compelling new information."

The researchers are currently working to confirm the 17 candidate TNOs, using imagery captured by ground-based telescopes. 

TNOs are bread crumbs that could lead to the way to Planet Nine. Researchers have inferred the hypothetical world's existence from the odd orbits of some TNOs, which they say are clustered in a way that strongly suggests sculpting by a big, farflung "perturber." The data indicate a planet five to 10 times more massive than Earth, orbiting the sun hundreds of times farther away than our world does.

Not everyone is on board with this interpretation, however. Some scientists think the TNOs' odd clustering arises from the combined gravitational influence of their many minuscule neighbors, not a single big object. 

The new study has been accepted by The Planetary Science Journal. Rice presented the results today (Oct. 27) at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences, which is being held virtually this year.

• Editor's note: This story was updated at 4:20 p.m. EDT to clarify that Rice, not Laughlin, is lead author of the new study.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life.

Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. 

{ https://www.space.com/ }

28-10-2020 om 23:39 geschreven door peter  

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is tucking away precious asteroid samples for safekeeping

 Meghan Bartels

Captured by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s SamCam camera on Oct. 22, 2020, this series of three images shows that the sampler head on the NASA spacecraft is full of rocks and dust collected from the surface of the asteroid Bennu. Some of these particles are slowly escaping the sampler head. Analysis by the OSIRIS-REx team suggests that bits of material are passing through small gaps where the head’s Mylar flap is slightly wedged open.

(Image: © NASA)

NASA's asteroid-sampling maneuver last week was so successful that the spacecraft will begin stowing its new souvenirs today (Oct. 27) to avoid losing rock by idling around.

The agency's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft touched down on an asteroid named Bennu on Oct. 20 and puffed nitrogen gas at the space rock to blow pieces into the arm's sampling head before backing away to safety. When OSIRIS-REx scientists were able to see images of the sampling head on Oct. 22, they realized that the maneuver had been so successful that asteroid rubble blocked the flap designed to close off the material in the arm.

Some of the spacecraft's precious haul started leaking away.

• Related: OSIRIS-REx: NASA's asteroid sample-return mission in pictures

So, in a procedure that's become familiar for the OSIRIS-REx team, the mission's scientists and engineers reevaluated their plans. Originally, the spacecraft was scheduled to make a careful pirouette over the weekend that would tell scientists precisely how much weight OSIRIS-REx had picked up in its encounter. But without the flap fully closed, that spin would result in the spacecraft losing more space rock.

To prevent this, the mission staff decided to skip that step and instead go ahead and stow the sample, a days-long maneuver that starts today, rather than waiting until Nov. 2 as had been previously planned. The process will tuck the spacecraft's sampling head securely into its sample return capsule for safe travel to Earth. 

The OSIRIS-REx (short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) mission isn't done studying Bennu, however. The mission is scheduled to remain at the space rock until the middle of next year before turning back to Earth, where it will deliver its cargo in 2023.

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

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{ https://www.space.com/ }

28-10-2020 om 23:14 geschreven door peter  

While the mainstream media gushes over the announcement that NASA found more water on the Moon – even though it will take massive amounts of energy to extract it from giant mounds of soil — another discovery announced just before the water revelation received less attention despite being more mysterious.

“I’ve studied a lot of craters on the Moon, this is different. This is not like your regular [crater]. It looks like there is an object inside.”

Apollo lunar scientist Peter Schultz revealed during Science Channel ‘NASA’s Unexplained Files’ program that NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was taking a picture of Mare Insularum (Sea of Islands), an ancient volcanic basin, and captured a nearby 130-foot-wide crater. The shape was non-circular, eliminating it from being an asteroid impact. But … there was a 580-foot-long (17.6 meters) resting in the bottom of it. The shape of the object and the location reminded some NASA old-timers of a seismic experiment during the Apollo moon missions that failed at the last minute. Could this be part of it?

Mare Insularum

“The plan was to measure shock waves from impact in order to find out more about the inner structure of the moon. We had seismographs on the surface of the moon that would have recorded the effects of the S-IVB. It was very valuable for those who tried to develop a picture of the inner mass of the moon from the seismograph and how it was.”

A video of the late Col. Al Worden, command module pilot for the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971, describes the experiment conducted during the following Apollo 16 mission in 1972. The S-IVB is the Saturn rocket booster that puts the spacecraft in lunar orbit before it is detached and crashes on the surface. Not wanting to waste a good crash, NASA saw it as a way to capture data on the mass of the Moon.

Apollo 16 launch

Unfortunately, NASA lost contact with the booster just before impact. However, the 15-ton booster was thought to be solid enough that it could survive the 500 mph (800 kph) impact, so astronomers and lunar researchers keep scanning photos and data for it. nearly 50 years later, they found it.

Is this a big deal? Definitely. It means there could be more remnants of spacecraft on the lunar surface – both from Earth and possibly from extraterrestrials. The booster, if it can be examined, could provide valuable data on conditions on the Moon for future missions. Finally, it’s one more memorial to those revolutionary, history-changing Apollo moon missions.

Does that beat finding a few more drops of water?

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{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

28-10-2020 om 20:33 geschreven door peter  

Squatting out in the dry lake bed of a desert wasteland in the Mojave Desert near Landers, California, is a massive solid granite rock that looms over the parched earth around it like some monolith from a lost civilization. Rather aptly named simply “Giant Rock,” the immense boulder is seven stories high and covering 5,800 square feet of land, making it one of the largest free standing rocks in the world. It is a formidable sight, and it is perhaps fitting that this place has long been held as sacred by the Native American tribes of the region, often seen as the heart of the Mother Earth, the people of this land once convening here to celebrate the changing of the seasons and shamans coming out across the forbidding desert to draw from its power. In more modern times, Giant Rock is also the scene of a strange tale that involves secret underground cities, aliens, a mad prophet, and a time machine.

During World War II, a German immigrant and desert prospector by the name of Frank Critzer became rather fascinated with Giant Rock, and went about tunneling beneath it looking to mine any riches he could find buried in the earth there, and he would eventually carve out rooms to use as a full time subterranean residence there. He became known as the eccentric mad loner who lived out under the rock, and he didn’t really have any friends until he met a former pilot, aircraft mechanic and flight inspector named George Van Tassel while in town pumping gas at a garage. The two got along well, becoming quick friends, and that was when Critzer began to tell him of the strange things he had experienced while living out in the desert under that mystical sacred rock.

Giant Rock

According to Critzer, his mining had uncovered strange tunnels down there in the gloom, which seemed to have completely smooth sides as if fashioned from glass and which plummeted down into the sheer blackness of the earth below to the unknown. Critzer claimed that these mysterious tunnels often emanated a strange buzzing sound somewhat akin to static, which had become so insistent that he had even built a special radio in an effort to distinguish the frequency of the constant drone. Critzer was certain that these were no normal naturally formed tunnels, and expressed his desire to explore them further, but he would never get a chance. In 1942, he fell under suspicion of being a German spy, and was confronted by authorities determined to take him in for questioning. The stubborn old loner refused to budge, and at some point during the tense standoff the police used a gas grenade to flush him out, which unintentionally ignited some mining dynamite that was lying around and erupted into a huge explosion that killed Critzer but left the rock itself relatively unfazed. The siege had ended in tragedy for Critzer, but for Van Tassel it had opened up an opportunity.

In 1947, Van Tassel moved with his family from his home in Barstow, California in order to start a new simple life out in the desert, and remembering the odd mysteries he had heard from Critzer he decided to move to Giant Rock. He moved in to Critzer’s cave home under the rock and leased the small nearby derelict airport from the Bureau of Land Management. He fixed up the airstrip and built a diner, shop, guest ranch and gas station there, turning it into a proper airport once again and the rock into a minor tourist attraction, and in the meantime he also held meditation sessions at Giant Rock to capitalize on the New Age idea that it was a sort of natural Earth power point. He also spent his free time poking around in the caves and tunnels under the rock, and it was these excursions that would take his life in a bizarre new direction.

There’s no way to really ease into it, so we’ll just come out and say it- it was aliens. Van Tassel claimed that he had not only found the strange tunnels mentioned by Critzer, but also that they were made by extraterrestrials, and through their crystalline structure he had managed to pick up messages from aliens from the planet Venus. Sometimes these incidents were just telepathic messages, but at other times he said that he had somehow astrally projected to meet the aliens themselves and ride aboard their ships. On one such occasion, an alien named Solganda brought him aboard their ship and taught him various advanced secrets on how to extend human life and heal any disease or ailment, and they also allegedly gave him blueprints for how to make a building that would serve as a “time machine for basic research on rejuvenation, anti-gravity, and time travel” that would “recharge energy into living cell structures, to bring about longer life with youthful energy.” He called this device the “Integratron,” and became absolutely obsessed with making it a reality, starting construction in 1954.

The Integratron

Van Tassel gathered together others who he told about his alien encounters and began work on what was to be a domed structure made up of non-ferromagnetic materials: wood, concrete, glass, and fiberglass, lacking any metal pieces whatsoever except a spinning copper wire core and a rotating metal structure on the outside he called an “electrostatic dirod.” As construction was going on, Van Tassel began holding annual UFO conventions in order to raise money for the project, with some of these gatherings attracting thousands of people, at its peak drawing in over 10,000 attendees. These conventions brought in many famous UFO contactees, and made Van Tassel so well known that he started The Ministry of Universal Wisdom and The College of Universal Wisdom in order to share the telepathic messages he was constantly receiving from the aliens, and he also wrote four books over the years, I Rode A Flying Saucer (1952, 1955) Into This World and Out Again (1956), The Council of Seven Lights (1958), Religion and Science Merged, and When Stars Look Down.

This would go one for over two decades, with Van Tassel devoting all of his time to these conventions and the building of the Integratron, but he would sadly never see it in its completed form. In 1978, just a few weeks before the machine was to be officially unveiled, Van Tassel would die from a heart attack, having never seen the fruits of all of his hard work or whether his Integratron would even work at all. To this day curiosity seekers and New Agers make pilgrimages to this desolate place, wanting to see the structure themselves or perhaps hoping to see UFOs and aliens. Whether any of Van Tassel’s visions were true or whether his machine ever had any hope of actually working, it is all a very curious tale and historical oddity that still serves to spark the imagination.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

28-10-2020 om 20:13 geschreven door peter  

There have been UFO and alien encounters of all types over the years, from beings and craft of all shapes and sizes, but every once in a while there will be a spate of encounters and sightings that truly stick out as something truly odd. Whether it is because of some bizarre details or behavior, these cases certainly manage to lodge themselves firmly into the weirdest of the weird. One such series of events apparently happened in the country of Malaysia in the 1970s and 80s, and involves an intense wave of grumpy, action figure sized aliens and their tiny, toy-like spaceships.

What seems to have been an invasion of sorts carried out by aliens of very diminutive proportions began in the summer of 1970, in the city of Johor Bahru, in the country of Malaysia. On this day four young schoolboys were out in the playground when they spied a silver, disc-like object around the size of a dinner plate land and disgorge a group of five tiny humanoid beings, which each stood only around 5 inches in height and were dressed in some sort of reddish, one-piece outfits. As the kids looked on in astonishment, the miniscule little men reportedly crawled down a hole and the miniature craft they had ridden in just sort of vanished into thin air. When the boys went to investigate, they say they found a small burnt patch of grass, but nothing more. The schoolkids excitedly told their headmaster about the strange encounter, and soon more reports would emerge of similar creatures in the area.

On August 19, 1970, a miniature UFO was seen by schoolkids to land just outside of the playground of the Stowell Primary School in Bukit Mertajam, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia, after which a door opened and a gangplank of sorts extended out of it. There was then seen a procession of little 3-inch tall humanoids with little antennae protruding from their heads and dressed in blue suits, with one of them in bright yellow. These tiny humanoids marched down the plank and mostly ignored the gawking kids as they went about building some sort of antennae like device until one of the boys tried to catch one of them. At that instance, the one in the yellow suit, possibly their leader, reportedly drew out a weapon of some kind and shot the boy in the hand with a laser beam, after which the kids recoiled away and told their teachers to come see it for themselves. However, the craft was gone when they arrived, with no sign of what had happened. Later that same day, the little UFO was seen again by one of the schoolchildren, and yet again one of the humanoids shot at him, this time causing him to black out. When he was found lying in the bushes the UFO was gone, but there was a mysterious red welt on his hand where he claimed the mini-laser gun had hit him.

After these initial reports, many of the children in the area began to report these small UFOs and their enigmatic occupants, with the craft never more than a few feet in diameter and the beings between 3 to 6 inches tall. There were also several other attempts to catch the entities, but they always either managed to escape or shot their attackers with their weapons, sometimes leaving cuts or burn marks upon the skin, including a cut incurred by the son of the local police chief. Reports like this went on throughout the summer of 1970, after which the miniature aliens seemed to have gone away. However, this wasn’t meant to last.

The year 1973 would see a resurgence in cases of miniaturized UFOs and aliens in Malaysia, largely concentrated around schools. The first of these supposedly happened at a schoolyard in Gambang, near Kuantan, where two school boys managed to catch a 3-inch tall humanoid, and on this occasion a teacher would come over and see the little man for himself before it managed to squirm out of captivity and run off. Not long after this, kids playing football at a playground at Bukit Mertajam saw a silvery craft only 2-feet across land near the field, which was enough for the kids to stop their game and go take a look. This seems to be something the tiny aliens did not appreciate, as they promptly fired on the boys with bright “beams of light” to send them scattering before flying away in their craft. Later that same year another of these little UFOs would be seen at a field in Ipoh, and this time it would be seen by some of the teachers as well as it flew off. There was also a sighting at Miri, Sarawak, in which the witnesses, again schoolboys, saw a 6-inch tall little man in a white space suit trying to cut a fence with some sort of welding instrument. As soon as the alien knew it was being watched it ran off and was lost in the brush. Interestingly there would be many other sightings of these creatures in the white suits, by both locals and some people on vacation as well, as a group of the entities was supposedly seen walking along a resort beach in the area of Miri.

After this the sightings would trail off until mini-UFOs hit the news again in 1976. In an article for Flying Saucer Review, Vol. 26, No. 5, Jan. 1981, UFO researcher Ahmad Jamaludin would report that there had been a spectacular sighting of one of the tiny humanoids at the Royal Malaysian Air Force Base, just outside of the town of Kuantan, Malaysia. The first sighting was made by a 9-year-old witness who saw the creature drinking water from a drain on the base. He said of its appearance, “it had two feelers on the head and held a steel-like rod in its hand. A pistol was hanging from its waist. It was brown in color and looked like a man.” The boy said that he went back later that evening with two of his friends and they all managed to see the same being. They then told their teacher about it, and he would oddly say of it, “There was no sign of the creature in the area, but I saw a Red Indian-like wigwam beautifully weaved out of grass. It was partly crushed.”

After this, things would go quiet again until 1979, when once again sightings of these impish aliens would fire up once more. It would seem that the aliens were getting a bit more aggressive than before, as in one report a boy had his whole arm paralyzed by one of the creature’s ray guns and in another report three boys and two adults claimed to have been blinded by a beam fired from one of the diminutive UFOs at a place called Kulim. Reports would then stop again, and the last official sighting of the miniature alien invaders allegedly happened in 1985, when a group of seven 6-inch tall humanoids was spotted by some schoolkids near a stack of wood at a school in Paka, Terengganu. Showing that these kids had learned nothing from previous reports of the little entities firing weapons, one of the boys reached out towards one of the creatures and was promptly shot by a beam of light that made his hand very itchy.

After this, the invasion of little people in Malaysia seems to have subsided, leaving us with many questions. What were these creatures and where did they come from? Why Malaysia, and why did they always seem to land at schools and appear to mostly children? Why were they so aggressive and why did kids keep trying to catch them? Was this all a big ongoing prank or something more? It is very likely we will never have the true answers to any of these questions, and we are left to wonder.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

28-10-2020 om 19:01 geschreven door peter  

Glowing Object Over Brechin, Lagoon City Canada, Ontario Oct 23, 2020, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Oct 23, 2020
Location of sighting: Ontario, Canada

 

This UFO was spotted while a person was working at the time of the recording and thats why the video is so short. The object is seen slowly moving around and does look similar to a tiny glowing cloud in the wind. However I believe it to be a UFO. The object seems to change direction slightly which clouds should not be able to do. This is an amazingly rare Canada sighting. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

28-10-2020 om 18:10 geschreven door peter  

Black Knight Satellite UFO Silently Moves Over Philippines, April 18, 2019, Video, UFO Sighting News.

 

Date of sighting: April 18, 2019, but reported this week

Location of sighting: Sta Rosa Laguna, Philippines 

 

This object seems to be drafting through the sky, however when I make a close up of it...I find it baffling. The object has an opening on tis top. It has a brownish red tint and the open on its top has a few long spikes on it. The shape reminds me of one of the dark knight satellites I reported about 10 years ago from a NASA index. This is 100% alien, no doubt about it. I have heard of the UFOs over the Philippines, but this is the clearest video I have ever seen from there. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

 

Eyewitness states: 

4/18/2019 - 6:25 PM Video taken by Galaxy S8 I have no idea what it is but it looks like a person floating through the sky wtf.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

28-10-2020 om 18:02 geschreven door peter  

Creature With Tenticals Found On Mars, Oct 28, 2020, UFO Sighting News.

Screenshot below is a white fungus I found a few days ago...I think it feeds off this...its growing out like a plant.

 

Date of discovery: Oct 28, 2020 (Taiwan Time)

Location of discovery: Mars

Source: Gigapan (coming in a few days)

 

I found this strange creature with tentacles in a Mars photo today. The animal has an exoskeleton and looks like a cross between a scorpion and a tortoise. Also there is a lot of white fungus like growth in the area. I believe that this animal may live off the liquid inside these fungus tubes. 15 years ago I found a color photo of the Mars rover and its deep tracks behind it. Behind the rover in the tracks I saw a single white fungus plant, broken off at the point the rover cut through it. It had a straw like opening and a white liquid was driving down from it and streaming into the tracks 3 inches below. The tracks were deep in the dirt...about 3 inches...which is unusual and thats why I took a look at the tracks and found it. I did not record the photo URL so it is still lost...out there. I believe this animal is eating the white liquid inside those fungus plants. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

28-10-2020 om 16:04 geschreven door peter  

Astrange anomaly which seems to change in shape and color hovered for prolonged period of time then moved erratically in the sky over Boise, Idaho on October 25, 2020. 

It spent first 3 or so minutes hovering in place, then began moving in circular and diagonal paths around the sky, not overly quickly and not in a significant distance, but very clearly moving, hovering, and repeating, then it moved erratically in the sky. 

The witness who watched the mysterious appearance for approximately 15 minutes said that it also was flashing in various colors before it disappeared. Mufon report here.

  

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

28-10-2020 om 15:49 geschreven door peter  

Astrange anomaly which seems to change in shape and color hovered for prolonged period of time then moved erratically in the sky over Boise, Idaho on October 25, 2020. 

It spent first 3 or so minutes hovering in place, then began moving in circular and diagonal paths around the sky, not overly quickly and not in a significant distance, but very clearly moving, hovering, and repeating, then it moved erratically in the sky. 

The witness who watched the mysterious appearance for approximately 15 minutes said that it also was flashing in various colors before it disappeared. Mufon report here.

  

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

28-10-2020 om 15:49 geschreven door peter  

Specialists May Have Found A Link Between UFO Sightings And Nuclear Missile Sites

A team of specialists find in Bariloche, Argentina, a possible link between a massive amount of UFO sightings in the area and a secret nuclear project.

{ https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

28-10-2020 om 15:36 geschreven door peter  

LUNAR WATER

NASA FINDS BEST EVIDENCE YET THAT THERE IS WATER ICE ON THE MOON

NASA HAS THE BEST EVIDENCE YET THAT THERE IS WATER ON THE MOON — and it appears far more abundant and more accessible than scientists first realized.

Trapped in ice, the evidence offers welcome justification for NASA’s ambitious program to not only return humans to the Moon by 2024, but to also establish a long-term, manned lunar base operating on a similar basis to the International Space Station.

As part of NASA's upcoming Artemis mission, the space agency wants to build a permanent lunar base on the Moon that will help astronauts reach further destinations like Mars. However, in order to do that, future astronauts would need to find resources on the Moon that can help accommodate their stay. Chief among them: water.

In a pair of studies published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists report both the 'unambigious' detection of molecular water and small, icy water traps that are much more spread out across the lunar surface than previously believed.

In terms of the exact amount of water found, Casey Honniball, one of the scientists who took part in the research and a postdoctoral fellow at NASA, said: "The amount of water is roughly equivalent to a 12 ounce bottle of water within a cubic meter of lunar soil." However it is important to note that the water is seemingly distributed across the lunar surface, and there may be differences across regions, she added. Honniball made the comments during a press conference to announce the discovery Monday.

A WATERY WORLD 

In 2018, scientists discovered evidence of water ice on the Moon's surface, mainly at lunar crater in the Moon's southern pole. Some of the water ice was also apparent at the northern pole, where temperatures never reach above -250 degrees Fahrenheit.

But the new discovery find ice water may be much more abundant across the lunar surface — occupying an area some 40,000 km squared, or about the same area as the country of Switzerland. Importantly, water also appears to exist in areas lit by sunlight — a key distinction from the implication of the 2018 results that water existed only in extremely cold, dark regions on the Moon.

Paul Hayne, a researcher at the Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences Department at the University of Colorado, and lead author of one of the new studies, noticed cold shadows in images of the Moon collected by NASA's Reconnaissance Orbiter and decided to investigate it further.

"If you could keep zooming in forever, at one point would you stop seeing those shadows," Hayne tells Inverse.

By further analyzing the image, the team behind the new study discovered that besides the large permanently shadowed craters on the Moon, there are tens of billions of other smaller cold traps that had not been mapped before across the lunar surface. Some of these are the size of a penny, the data suggest.

"What surprised us is just the sheer number," Hayne says. "Tens of billions of them and spread out throughout the poles."

The new discovery also showed that these shadowed areas can be found within a centimeter of sun-lit areas on the Moon, meaning that they are a lot more accessible than previously believed.Astronauts may not need to venture to the areas of the Moon where temperatures are freezing.

Instead, they could be standing in the relatively warm sunlit areas and still be able to have access to the frozen water.“It definitely expands the possibilities,” Hayne says. “What this discovery does is also expand the real estate on the lunar surface where a base could be viable.”

The studies also find clear evidence that the signs of water the scientists in 2018 found are indeed water, not of hydroxyls. Hydroxyls are used in household chemicals, like drain cleaner, according to Honniball.

HUMANS' FUTURE ON THE MOON 

 The scientists behind the two studies reinforced the idea that water is "extremely critical" to deep space exploration. It could be used for drinking water, and for other purposes they said. But water is heavy, Jacob Bleacher, a NASA researcher involved in the work, said during the same conference. That makes it hard to transport from Earth to the Moon, or further into space.

"Finding water that is easier to reach is really important to us," Bleacher said.

Knowing how much water is on the Moon, how it is stored, and whether it is replenished over time are important questions to answer for any future human exploration or stays on the Moon, Bleacher added. Ultimately, scientists hope to establish a lunar water resource map, he said.

SOFIA, NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, was critical to these new results. But SOFIA was not supposed to study the Moon. It was a shock when, during a test, the scientists operating the observatory found these clear signals of water across the Moon's surface, Naseem Rangwala, project scientist for the SOFIA mission, said during the conference.

An important implication of these results is that when planning a future lunar base, scientists may no longer be restricted to exploring the rims of lunar craters previously known to have ice water. Scientists also noted in the press conference that there is likely similar abundance on the far-side of the Moon as seen here on the near-side.

The discovery offers up new questions about how water can persist on the harsh conditions on the lunar surface, Paul Hertz, Astrophysics division director at NASA, added. The Moon has no atmosphere, and the surface is thought entirely inhospitable due to the harmful affects of solar radiation. But the new results suggest lunar water may withstand solar radiation because it is stored in the form of glass-like beads.

If water can persist — and replenish — across the Moon, then it is possible future lunar explorers could mine and use Moon water as we use water here on Earth, from growing crops to drinking cocktails.

Abstract 1: 

Widespread hydration was detected on the lunar surface through observations of a characteristic absorption feature at 3 µm by three independent spacecraft^1,2,3. Whether the hydration is molecular water (H₂O) or other hydroxyl (OH) compounds is unknown and there are no established methods to distinguish the two using the 3 µm band⁴. However, a fundamental vibration of molecular water produces a spectral signature at 6 µm that is not shared by other hydroxyl compounds⁵. Here, we present observations of the Moon at 6 µm using the NASA/DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). Observations reveal a 6 µm emission feature at high lunar latitudes due to the presence of molecular water on the lunar surface. On the basis of the strength of the 6 µm band, we estimate abundances of about 100 to 400 µg g⁻¹ H₂O. We find that the distribution of water over the small latitude range is a result of local geology and is probably not a global phenomenon. Lastly, we suggest that a majority of the water we detect must be stored within glasses or in voids between grains sheltered from the harsh lunar environment, allowing the water to remain on the lunar surface.

Abstract 2: 

Water ice is thought to be trapped in large permanently shadowed regions in the Moon’s polar regions, due to their extremely low temperatures. Here, we show that many unmapped cold traps exist on small spatial scales, substantially augmenting the areas where ice may accumulate. Using theoretical models and data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, we estimate the contribution of shadows on scales from 1 km to 1 cm, the smallest distance over which we find cold-trapping to be effective for water ice. Approximately 10–20% of the permanent cold-trap area for water is found to be contained in these micro cold traps, which are the most numerous cold traps on the Moon. Consideration of all spatial scales therefore substantially increases the number of cold traps over previous estimates, for a total area of ~40,000 km², about 60% of which is in the south. A majority of cold traps for water ice is found at latitudes > 80° because permanent shadows equatorward of 80° are typically too warm to support ice accumulation. Our results suggest that water trapped at the lunar poles may be more widely distributed and accessible as a resource for future missions than previously thought.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

28-10-2020 om 01:06 geschreven door peter  

NASA finds water in cold traps on the moon — and it could sustain a lunar base

The moon is much wetter than we thought -- not one, but two papers show it.

 We’ve suspected there was water on the moon for about a decade, but there was some room for interpretation. Well, not anymore.

“It’s actually 40,000 square kilometers,” Paul Hayne, one of the study authors, tells me, pointing out a typo in a press release. That’s 40,000 square kilometers that could host water on the moon.

The moon has a swarm of shadowy traps — traps where the sun never shines, cold enough that they could host water. It’s not the first time something like this has been speculated by researchers. In 2009, NASA scientists found water molecules in the polar regions of the moon.

But the 2009 study couldn’t really tell whether it was really (frozen) water or if there water is entrapped in lunar rocks. If this were the case, then the rock-embedded water (in a form called hydroxyl) wouldn’t really be of much use to potential moon missions. Now we know: it’s not.

As my colleague Rob points out, water has a distinct chemical signature that hydroxyl doesn’t, but it’s not always visible: you have to use the right instruments to see it. Casey Honniball and colleagues analyzed data from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) airborne telescope that observed the Moon at 6 micrometers (or microns) wavelengths. At this wavelength, the chemical signature of water becomes detectable, which confirmed that the 2009 study was on the money — it is indeed molecular water, not water that’s trapped in geological structures.

We’ve suspected there was water on the moon for about a decade, but there was some room for interpretation. Well, not anymore.

“It’s actually 40,000 square kilometers,” Paul Hayne, one of the study authors, tells me, pointing out a typo in a press release. That’s 40,000 square kilometers that could host water on the moon.

The moon has a swarm of shadowy traps — traps where the sun never shines, cold enough that they could host water. It’s not the first time something like this has been speculatedby researchers. In 2009, NASA scientists found water molecules in the polar regions of the moon.

But the 2009 study couldn’t really tell whether it was really (frozen) water or if there water is entrapped in lunar rocks. If this were the case, then the rock-embedded water (in a form called hydroxyl) wouldn’t really be of much use to potential moon missions. Now we know: it’s not.

As my colleague Rob points out, water has a distinct chemical signature that hydroxyl doesn’t, but it’s not always visible: you have to use the right instruments to see it. Casey Honniball and colleagues analyzed data from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) airborne telescope that observed the Moon at 6 micrometers (or microns) wavelengths. At this wavelength, the chemical signature of water becomes detectable, which confirmed that the 2009 study was on the money — it is indeed molecular water, not water that’s trapped in geological structures.

But this is just one of the puzzle pieces published today. In the other one, Paul Hayne and colleagues explored phenomena called “cold traps”.

Where the sun doesn’t shine

Imagine standing on the surface of the moon, near one of its poles, Hayne explains. You’d see a lot of shadows — shadows where the sun doesn’t shine, that are cold enough to preserve frozen water even without a lunar atmosphere.

“All of this area could harbor water ice, because these are regions where the temperature is so low (less than -163 °C) that ice is stable for billions of years.” There’s a lot of area that could hold water, but it’s not clear just how much there is. “However, we do not yet know how much is there.”

THe shadowed Shackleton Crater near the moon’s south pole is one location where scientists have found deposits of water ice. The ice can not only be used by lunar astronomers, but it has the potential to reveal insights about the moon’s history, (and the Earth’s) history.

Image credits: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Leonard David’s Inside Outer Space.

Hayne and colleagues found that cold traps could vary drastically in size, down to just 1 centimetre in diameter. The smaller ones are much more common, Hayne notes, and all traps are more common in the polar areas. where light falls at more of an angle.

“Our findings suggest that water deposits in the micro cold traps are much more geographically widespread in the polar regions,” he explains.

What this all means

The immediate significance of this discovery is practical: if there’s a lot of water on the moon, then there’s a lot of water that could be used in lumar missions — and having access to water is an excellent starting point for a prospective lunar base, or even a research station.

“This discovery should make it easier to perform extraction and utilization for both science and exploration missions in the future,” Hayne also explains.

But the fact that the moon could host water is only a part of the story; where did that water come from in the first place?

Water may have been delivered to the Moon over geological timescales by an astronomical bombardment, Haynes says. Understanding where it came from could even reveal where the water on Earth is sourced. But if we really want to figure that out, remote observations just won’t do.

“The mostly likely sources based on current understanding are:

1) comets,

2) asteroids and interplanetary dust,

3) solar wind protons, and

4) volcanic outgassing from the Moon itself.

We will need to get down on the surface and analyze the ice deposits directly in order to understand which of these sources dominates. This also would shed light on the origins of Earth’s water.”

Journal References:

• C. I. Honniball et al. Molecular water detected on the sunlit Moon by SOFIA. Nature Astronomy (2020). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-01222-x
• P. O. Hayne et al. Micro cold traps on the Moon. Nature Astronomy. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1198-9

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

27-10-2020 om 23:09 geschreven door peter  

UFO sighting: Alien 'monolith' base found on Mars moon Phobos - claim

UFO watchers have been excitedly sharing a European Space Agency (ESA) image purportedly showing an alien moon base first posited by NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

27-10-2020 om 21:59 geschreven door peter  

If there are in fact extraterrestrials in other parts of the universe, they may be able to spy on us depending on where they are living.

While this sounds like a creepy sci-fi movie, we’re actually doing the same thing by searching the universe for other intelligent life, so it’s very possible that other lifeforms may be doing the same. According to a new study, more than 1,000 nearby stars are in a great position to spy on our planet.

In a statement, Lisa Kaltenegger, who is an associate professor of astronomy at Cornell and director of the university’s Carl Sagan Institute as well as the lead author of the study, explained this further, “If observers were out there searching [from planets orbiting these stars], they would be able to see signs of a biosphere in the atmosphere of our Pale Blue Dot,” adding, “And we can even see some of the brightest of these stars in our night sky without binoculars or telescopes.”

Kaltenegger and Joshua Pepper, who is an associate professor of physics at Lehigh University and the co-author of the study, decided to think of Earth as a place for other intelligent life to study and they came up with some very interesting results.

By analyzing data gathered by TESS as well as Europe’s star-mapping Gaia spacecraft, they focused on stars that were located within a distance of approximately 300 light-years away from us and are positioned so that they can view Earth cross in front of our sun. They found 1,004 main-sequence stars (similar to our own sun) that may possibly have Earth-like planets orbiting them within the habitable zone. And 508 of those stars have a guaranteed “minimum 10-hour-long observation of Earth’s transit” when we pass in front of our sun.

Their study focused on just stars so the number of exoplanets that could be orbiting the more than a thousand suns with a decent view of Earth is yet to be determined. With the help from TESS and other technology, we’ll hopefully get an answer to that mystery in the near future. “If we’re looking for intelligent life in the universe that could find us and might want to get in touch, we’ve just created the star map of where we should look first,” Kaltenegger stated.

With 1,004 suns, there would most probably be at least a few planets orbiting some of them, so if there were aliens living on those planets, maybe they are spying on us. I wonder what they’re thinking…

Artist's impression of an exoplanet transiting a red dwarf star.

(Image: © L. Calçada/ESO)

Their paper was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters where it can be read in full.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

27-10-2020 om 21:24 geschreven door peter  

NASA Discovers Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon

This illustration highlights the Moon’s Clavius Crater with an illustration depicting water trapped in the lunar soil there, along with an image of NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy 

NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places.

SOFIA has detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth, located in the Moon’s southern hemisphere. Previous observations of the Moon’s surface detected some form of hydrogen, but were unable to distinguish between water and its close chemical relative, hydroxyl (OH). Data from this location reveal water in 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. The results are published in the latest issue of Nature Astronomy.

“We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon,” said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.”

As a comparison, the Sahara desert has 100 times the amount of water than what SOFIA detected in the lunar soil. Despite the small amounts, the discovery raises new questions about how water is created and how it persists on the harsh, airless lunar surface.

Water is a precious resource in deep space and a key ingredient of life as we know it. Whether the water SOFIA found is easily accessible for use as a resource remains to be determined. Under NASA’s Artemis program, the agency is eager to learn all it can about the presence of water on the Moon in advance of sending the first woman and next man to the lunar surface in 2024 and establishing a sustainable human presence there by the end of the decade.

SOFIA’s results build on years of previous research examining the presence of water on the Moon. When the Apollo astronauts first returned from the Moon in 1969, it was thought to be completely dry. Orbital and impactor missions over the past 20 years, such as NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, confirmed ice in permanently shadowed craters around the Moon’s poles. Meanwhile, several spacecraft – including the Cassini mission and Deep Impact comet mission, as well as the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 mission – and NASA’s ground-based Infrared Telescope Facility, looked broadly across the lunar surface and found evidence of hydration in sunnier regions. Yet those missions were unable to definitively distinguish the form in which it was present – either H2O or OH.

“Prior to the SOFIA observations, we knew there was some kind of hydration,” said Casey Honniball, the lead author who published the results from her graduate thesis work at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa in Honolulu. “But we didn’t know how much, if any, was actually water molecules – like we drink every day – or something more like drain cleaner.”

Scientists using NASA’s telescope on an airplane, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, discovered water on a sunlit surface of the Moon for the first time. SOFIA is a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that allows astronomers to study the solar system and beyond in ways that are not possible with ground-based telescopes. Molecular water, H2O, was found in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth in the Moon’s southern hemisphere. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places.

Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center

SOFIA offered a new means of looking at the Moon. Flying at altitudes of up to 45,000 feet, this modified Boeing 747SP jetliner with a 106-inch diameter telescope reaches above 99% of the water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere to get a clearer view of the infrared universe. Using its Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST), SOFIA was able to pick up the specific wavelength unique to water molecules, at 6.1 microns, and discovered a relatively surprising concentration in sunny Clavius Crater.

“Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space,” said Honniball, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Yet somehow we’re seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there.”

Several forces could be at play in the delivery or creation of this water. Micrometeorites raining down on the lunar surface, carrying small amounts of water, could deposit the water on the lunar surface upon impact. Another possibility is there could be a two-step process whereby the Sun’s solar wind delivers hydrogen to the lunar surface and causes a chemical reaction with oxygen-bearing minerals in the soil to create hydroxyl. Meanwhile, radiation from the bombardment of micrometeorites could be transforming that hydroxyl into water.

How the water then gets stored – making it possible to accumulate – also raises some intriguing questions. The water could be trapped into tiny beadlike structures in the soil that form out of the high heat created by micrometeorite impacts. Another possibility is that the water could be hidden between grains of lunar soil and sheltered from the sunlight – potentially making it a bit more accessible than water trapped in beadlike structures.

For a mission designed to look at distant, dim objects such as black holes, star clusters, and galaxies, SOFIA’s spotlight on Earth’s nearest and brightest neighbor was a departure from business as usual. The telescope operators typically use a guide camera to track stars, keeping the telescope locked steadily on its observing target. But the Moon is so close and bright that it fills the guide camera’s entire field of view. With no stars visible, it was unclear if the telescope could reliably track the Moon. To determine this, in August 2018, the operators decided to try a test observation.

“It was, in fact, the first time SOFIA has looked at the Moon, and we weren’t even completely sure if we would get reliable data, but questions about the Moon’s water compelled us to try,” said Naseem Rangwala, SOFIA’s project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “It’s incredible that this discovery came out of what was essentially a test, and now that we know we can do this, we’re planning more flights to do more observations.”

SOFIA’s follow-up flights will look for water in additional sunlit locations and during different lunar phases to learn more about how the water is produced, stored, and moved across the Moon. The data will add to the work of future Moon missions, such as NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), to create the first water resource maps of the Moon for future human space exploration.

In the same issue of Nature Astronomy, scientists have published a paper using theoretical models and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data, pointing out that water could be trapped in small shadows, where temperatures stay below freezing, across more of the Moon than currently expected. The results can be found here.

“Water is a valuable resource, for both scientific purposes and for use by our explorers,” said Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. “If we can use the resources at the Moon, then we can carry less water and more equipment to help enable new scientific discoveries.”

SOFIA is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center. Ames manages the SOFIA program, science, and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, and the German SOFIA Institute at the University of Stuttgart. The aircraft is maintained and operated by NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Building 703, in Palmdale, California.

Contacts and sources:Felicia Chou

• NASA Headquarters

Alison Hawkes
Ames Research Center,

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27-10-2020 om 18:32 geschreven door peter