“SOFIA Has detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavious Crater, one of the largest crater visible from earth, located in moon’s southern hemisphere. It is close chemical relative hydroxyl (OH).
- NASA via Press Release.
Background:
Moon occupies a special place for humans. As the closest celestial object to Earth and with the recent advances made in lunar exploration, Moon will continue to be an important object of study. The early Moon landings during the Apollo era were followed by a lull in lunar studies until the early 1990s with the launch of Clementine (USAF/NASA) followed by Lunar Prospector (NASA), SMART-1 (ESA), Kaguya (Japan), Chang’e missions (China), Chandrayaan-1 (India), Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (NASA), etc. As we all know origin of life comes up on earth from water (H2O). It was believed that earth is the only planet having water on it and sustaining same for life but with advancement in science and new findings. Presence of water on other planets or celestial bodies doesn’t seem to be a big challenge and this time NASA’s Sophia mission has claimed it on moon.
Humankind’s efforts all around the globe:
Humankind is sending missions and missions in space in order to find existence of life. As we are carbon-based life forms, water is crucial for our existence. Billions and billions of dollars have been spent all across the world to finance different agencies to explore and study different planets for the sole purpose of finding water and life. India also sent missions and missions to moon one of the famous ones you might have heard about is Chandrayaan-1 and 2 which was also aimed at discovering water at moon’s surface and also achieved this purpose. This space race has been started much before the Era of Cold War between Soviet Union and USA. The first interplanetary mission to fly past another planet was the Soviet Union's Venera-1. The robotic spacecraft was intended to enter into orbit around Venus but suffered a malfunction and radio contact with the spacecraft was lost. But still the space race hasn’t faced any retardation and more and more player countries, agencies and companies are joining it.
Current discovery and role of SOFIA and CHANDRAYAAN:
After decades of work, scientists used Chandrayaan 1 and NASA’s LCROSS to finally discover water on the Moon in 2009. In the 10 years since, the next step has been to understand the exact nature of and the amount of water the Moon hosts. This is where NASA’s LRO and ISRO Chandrayaan-2 orbiter come in.
Considered to be one of the premier space science programs of NASA, SOFIA is a joint project between NASA and the German Aerospace Centre, DLR. It features a 100-inch diameter telescope weighing up to 20 tons and is mounted on a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft. SOFIA’s first-generation cameras and spectrographs enable NASA to use it for a wide variety of missions. Sofia was designed with an aim to integrate and improve the level of education in US in various sectors dealing with science and technology. It provides the elementary, secondary and college-level educators from across US to participate in scientific and astronomical research. The mission also includes the participation of students from both undergraduate and graduate-level programmes and assisting them in designing and analyzing observations of SOFIA’s telescope.
NASA on Monday said it found traces of water on a sunlit surface of the Moon for the first time. The results published in the journal Nature Astronomy suggests that the water may be delivered by tiny meteorite impact, or formed by the interaction of energetic particles ejected from the Sun. However, new data indicates that there is the equivalent of “a 12-ounce bottle of water trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface”. The water’s source is still unknown, but whether delivered by micrometeorites that hit the moon or created by a chemical reaction, it’s an exciting discovery, especially when considering the future of human space travel.