Image courtesy MSNBC news

This NASA/JPL handout image shows an image of Earth from the Moon, acquired by NASA's Discovery Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), that is a guest instrument onboard the ISRO Chandrayaan-1 Mission to the Moon. Water particles have been detected on the surface of the Moon by three missions, including an Indian probe.The evidence, disclosed in new scientific papers, overturns the long accepted view that lunar soil is dry and comes just two weeks before a NASA probe is to crash into the surface near the Moon's southern pole to see if water can be detected in the dust and debris released by the impact. Australia is visible in the lower center of the image. The image is presented as a false color composite with oceans dark blue, clouds white, and vegetation enhanced green.

In the image above, the earth is seen from the moon. The moon surface, ripply and reflective, looks like water to me, with the earth hanging in the sky above it like a moon.


There is, officially, water on the moon

So, that missile launch last month ("plume on the moon") paid off after all. NASA is reporting that the impact data from the launch indicates that there is water on the moon.


NASA reports:

The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water.

Secrets the moon has been holding, for perhaps billions of years, are now being revealed to the delight of scientists and space enthusiasts alike.

NASA today opened a new chapter in our understanding of the moon. Preliminary data from the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates that the mission successfully uncovered water during the Oct. 9, 2009 impacts into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus cater near the moon’s south pole.

The impact created by the LCROSS Centaur upper stage rocket created a two-part plume of material from the bottom of the crater. The first part was a high angle plume of vapor and fine dust and the second a lower angle ejecta curtain of heavier material. This material has not seen sunlight in billions of years.

"We're unlocking the mysteries of our nearest neighbor and by extension the solar system. It turns out the moon harbors many secrets, and LCROSS has added a new layer to our understanding," said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Read the entire article here.

I love to hear scientists waxing poetic ("It turns out, the moon harbors many secrets." — Michael Wargo) and who can blame them?


The moon,
Annette Marie Hyder

awesome luminary of the night sky
administrator of tides
keeper of times
holds water cupped in its hands
while mystery lurks
and secrets glitter its sands.

Luna looks down at us
with hooded gaze
and we are mesmerized.