Ice on Moon's south pole may have multiple sources: Study

Ice deposits in craters scattered across Moon's south pole may have more than one source, according to a study which could help identify origin of se deposits, and in planning for future human exploration. discovery of ice deposits on south pole of Moon has helped to renew interest in exploring lunar surface, but one is sure exactly when or how that ice got re. study, published in journal Icarus, suggests that while a majority of those deposits are likely billions of years old, some may be much more recent.

RE: NASA Seals Megeal With Lockheed For Its Manned Moon Mission

'Having an idea of is important'

Ariel Deutsch, a gruate student at Brown University in US, said that constraining s of deposits is important both for basic science and for future lunar explorers who might make use of that ice for fuel and or purposes. " s of se deposits can potentially tell us something about origin of ice, which helps us understand sources and distribution of water in inner solar system," Deutsch said. "For exploration purposes, we need to understand lateral and vertical distributions of se deposits to figure out how best to access m. se distributions evolve with time, so having an idea of is important," she said.

RE: Saturn Goes Ahe Of Jupiter In 'planet With Highest Number Of Moons'

ice can't be any older than crater

Using data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers, including Jim He from Brown University, and Gregory Neumann from NASA Goddard Flight Center, looked at s of large craters in which evidence for south pole ice deposits was found. To date craters, researchers count number of smaller craters that have accrued inside larger ones. Scientists have an approximate idea of pace of impacts over time, so counting craters can help establish s of terrains. majority of reported ice deposits are found within large craters formed about 3.1 billion years or longer ago, study found.  Since ice can't be any older than crater, that puts an upper bound on of ice, according to researchers. Just because crater is old doesn't mean that ice within it is also that old too, but in this case re's reason to believe ice is indeed old, y said.

RE: China's Yutu-2 Lander Grows Cotton On Moon; A Biological First

ice has been battered over a long time

deposits have a patchy distribution across crater floors, which suggests that ice has been battered by small meteorite impacts and or debris over a long period of time. If those reported ice deposits are indeed ancient, that could have significant implications in terms of exploration and potential resource utilisation, researchers said. "re have been models of bombardment through time showing that ice starts to concentrate with depth. So if you have a surface layer that's old, you'd expect more underneath," Deutsch said. While majority of ice was in ancient craters, researchers also found evidence for ice in smaller craters that, judging by ir sharp, well-defined features, appear to be quite fresh.  This suggests that some of deposits on south pole got re relatively recently, researcrs said. "That was a surprise. re hn't really been any observations of ice in younger cold traps before," Deutsch said.

RE: ISRO Releases First Ims Of Moon Captured By Chandrayaan2's OHRC

Recent ice deposits would require different sources 

If re are indeed deposits of different s, researchers said, that suggests y may also have different sources. Older ice could have been sourced from water-bearing comets and asteroids impacting surface, or through volcanic activity that drew water from deep within Moon. However, re are t many big water-bearing impactors around in recent times, and volcanism is thought to have ceased on Moon over a billion years ago, researchers said. More recent ice deposits would require different sources -- perhaps bombardment from pea-sized micrometeorites or implantation by solar wind, y said. best way to find out for sure, researchers said, is to send craft re to get some samples.