Study Shows Water On The Moon Came From Same Source As That of the Earth

A study on moon rocks and samples from the Apollo mission show that water on the moon came from the same source as that of water found on Earth. This discovery raises questions on how the Moon is believed to be formed.

The Great Impact Theory of the formation of the moon involves a planet the size of Mars called Theia colliding with the Earth around 4.5 billion years ago. The debris from the two colliding objects is believed to coalesce and fuse together to form the moon.

The Great Impact Theory was first proposed by Reginald Daly of Harvard in 1946 but was not thoroughly discussed until 1974 when Dr. William K. Harmann and Dr. Donald R. Davis brought it up again as a valid explanation of the moon's formation. The theory also would explain the geological and geochemical properties of the moon.

With the current research showing that the water found on the moon is from the same source as the Earth's, it is theorized that during the great impact, water already existing on the Earth survived the impact and settled on the moon during its formation.

Ice Water And Organic Materials Detected In Planet Mercury By NASA Spacecraft

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has detected big pockets of ice and water in the north polar region of the planet Mercury. The image shows a perspective view of Mercury’s north polar region with the radar-bright regions shown in yellow where water and ice has been detected.

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. It orbits the Sun from a distance of 46,000,000 to 70,000,000 kilometers (29,000,000 to 43,000,000 miles) and takes 88 days to complete one. Without an atmosphere to retain heat, the surface of the planet fluctuates. Mercury can reach to temperatures up to 700 Kelvin (K) which is hot enough to melt lead but there are areas that have temperatures as low as 50 K. 0 K is absolute zero.

Despite this, there are areas in the planet that are shielded from the Sun's heat. These are located in the polar regions of the planet. It is in these areas that NASA's MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) spacecraft have discovered "evidence of big pockets of ice... from a latitude of 85 degrees north up to the pole, with smaller deposits scattered as far away as 65 degrees north..."