MOON ICE

Well I had never realised that there was ice on our moon. Because of its age it would be interesting to somehow get a core sample ?

Interesting read from the daily galaxy.

NASA data has led to rare discovery: Earth's moon wandered off axis billions of years ago. Ancient lunar ice indicates the moon's axis slowly shifted by 125 miles, or 6 degrees, over 1 billion years. Earth's moon now a member of solar system's exclusive 'true polar wander' club, which includes just a handful of other planetary bodies.

"The ice may be a time capsule from the same source that supplied the original water to Earth," he said. "This is a record we don't have on Earth. Earth has reworked itself so many times, there's nothing that old left here. Ancient ice from the moon could provide answers to this deep mystery."

www.dailygalaxy.com...

www.bbc.co.uk...

As abundant as hydrogen is in the universe I'm not surprised that water and life are being found everywhere.

Yes life is everywhere it manifest in various forms into anything and everything it can get its hands on.

Expect it to hit technology next as well.

One day they're going to melt some ice on one of these planets/moons and some huge great ugly alien is gonna jump out!

a reply to: skywatcher44
The interesting part of the article is the lunar polar wander imo. They suggest that because of the position of the ice on the N-and S pole (observed offset) the moon hasn't always showed the same face to the earth but has been shifting for billions of years, 125 miles over the course of 1 billion year. Which is probably caused by the interior heating.
You could compare it with the earths polar wander but the causes are probably different.

There is also a probability that the ice had been there since the 'creation' of the moon, so it's very old and core samples could provide us with more information on it's origins and maybe that of the earth too.
But for now we have no idea where the ice/water on earth, moon, mars,... came from.
Our best guess is that it came from asteroids or other cosmic bodies.

originally posted by: intergalactic fire
a reply to: skywatcher44
They suggest that because of the position of the ice on the N-and S pole (observed offset) the moon hasn't always showed the same face to the earth

Duh, that the Moon hasn't always shown the same face to earth is a well-known fact. The Moon was rotating with respect to earth when it formed, and only through the gravitational interaction called tidal locking did it gradually slow down to the point of showing the same face.

originally posted by: skywatcher44
Well I had never realised that there was ice on our moon.

Then you'll probably be doubly surprised to learn that there is ice on Mercury.

originally posted by: wildespace

originally posted by: intergalactic fire
a reply to: skywatcher44
They suggest that because of the position of the ice on the N-and S pole (observed offset) the moon hasn't always showed the same face to the earth

Duh, that the Moon hasn't always shown the same face to earth is a well-known fact. The Moon was rotating with respect to earth when it formed, and only through the gravitational interaction called tidal locking did it gradually slow down to the point of showing the same face.

originally posted by: skywatcher44
Well I had never realised that there was ice on our moon.

Then you'll probably be doubly surprised to learn that there is ice on Mercury.

Duhhh
What has tidal locking to do with any of this? They are talking about a billion years not a thousand years which supposedly was needed to lock the moon.
Suggesting causes for this rotation are major volcanic activity or large impacts.

the pictures in this thread are incredible

originally posted by: intergalactic fire
They are talking about a billion years not a thousand years which supposedly was needed to lock the moon.

Citation needed for that one I think.

a reply to: OneBigMonkeyToo
what's up with these citations needed, reading the article can help and it's also mentioned in the op.

originally posted by: intergalactic fire
a reply to: OneBigMonkeyToo
what's up with these citations needed, reading the article can help and it's also mentioned in the op.

I read them and found no reference in either of the articles that says tidal locking took a thousand years.

a reply to: OneBigMonkeyToo

apologies i thought you meant the billion year time reference.

I read that somewhere it took about thousands year, don't remember where though.
It was some time ago. Will try to find it.

a reply to: intergalactic fire

A couple of interesting notes. According to wikipedia

In 2016, planetary scientists, using data collected on the much earlier Nasa Lunar Prospector mission, found two hydrogen-rich areas on opposite sides of the Moon, probably in the form of water ice. It is speculated that these patches were the poles of the Moon billions of years ago, before it was tidally locked to Earth

Apparently this axis shift predates the Moon becoming tidally locked to the Earth.

Also that water ice is in a very cold place:

there are places that remain in permanent shadow at the bottoms of many polar craters,[83] and these dark craters are extremely cold: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter measured the lowest summer temperatures in craters at the southern pole at 35 K (−238 °C; −397 °F)[112] and just 26 K (−247 °C; −413 °F) close to the winter solstice in north polar Hermite Crater. This is the coldest temperature in the Solar System ever measured by a spacecraft, colder even than the surface of Pluto.

Being that close to absolute zero means that just about anything we can manufacture is pretty brittle. It'll be interesting to see how they are able to make use of this resource.

-dex

a reply to: intergalactic fire

No problem

It would seem highly unlikely that tidal locking can be accomplished in that timescale, and the common school of thought is that it is an ongoing process.