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VIRTUALISATION Chandrayaan finds how water is generated on Moon
VIRTUALISATION Chandrayaan finds how water is generated on Moon | Chandrayaan finds how water is generated on Moon |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Friday, 16 October 2009 | |
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The discovery was made by the Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer (SARA) instrument onboard the lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1. The instrument was made by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The October 15, 2009 ESA article “How The Moon Produces Its Own Water,” states, “The Moon is a big sponge that absorbs electrically charged particles given out by the Sun. These particles interact with the oxygen present in some dust grains on the lunar surface, producing water.” Thus, these positively charged hydrogen nuclei (each nucleus contains one proton and no neutrons) are impacting the Moon’s surface from the Sun. About one in five of them are being trapped in the lunar regolith (which is composed of irregularly formed dust grains). They actually become trapped in between the dust grains and eventually are absorbed into the regolith. Each hydrogen proton then combines with an electron to become an electrically neutral atom of hydrogen (consisting of one positively charged proton and one negatively charged electron). The hydrogen atom then interacts with the oxygen already present in the lunar regolith. And, molecules of hydroxyl (one atom of oxygen and one atom of hydrogen; OH) and water (two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen: H2O) are produced. Page two continues. |
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