Water exists on the moon, scientists confirm
美国宇航局马里兰州戈达德太空飞行中心的凯西·霍尼贝尔和同事们通过测量月球表面反射的太阳光波长,检测到一种化学特征,这种化学特征明显是水的化学特征。这些数据是由红外天文学平流层天文台(Sofia)收集的,该天文台是一架改装的波音747飞机,携带一个2.7米的反射望远镜。
Casey Honniball at Nasa’s ASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, US, and colleagues have detected a chemical signature that is unambiguously H2O, by measuring the wavelengths of sunlight reflecting off the moon’s surface. The data was gathered by the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia), a modified Boeing 747 carrying a 2.7-metre reflecting telescope.
米尔顿·凯恩斯开放大学行星科学和探索教授马赫什·阿南德(Mahesh Anand)说,这些水是在靠近月球南极的高纬度地区发现的,含量约为百万分之一百到四百。它的分量大约与从地球大洋中脊流出的熔岩中溶解出来的水相当,在适当的温度和压力条件下,可以收集这些水分制造液态水。
The water was discovered at high latitudes towards the moon’s south pole in abundances of about 100 to 400 parts per million H2O. “That is quite a lot,” said Mahesh Anand, professor of planetary science and exploration at the Open University in Milton Keynes. “It is about as much as is dissolved in the lava flowing out of the Earth’s mid-ocean ridges, which could be harvested to make liquid water under the right temperature and pressure conditions.”
原为来自The Guardian
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