MOON AND MERCURY MAY HAVE MORE WATER ICE DEPOSITS

 

For: Preliminary & Mains

Topics covered: Ice on moon and mercury, Key findings, significances

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News Flash

A recent analysis of data from NASA spacecraft shows that the moon and mercury (closest planet to the sun) may contain significantly more water ice than previously thought.

 

Key findings

• The potential ice deposits are found in craters near the poles of both worlds.
• In the past, telescopic observations and orbiting spacecraft have found glacier-like ice deposits on Mercury, but as of yet not on the Moon.
• On the Moon, it found shallow craters tend to be located in areas where surface ice was previously detected near the south pole of the Moon and inferred this shallowing is most likely due to the presence of buried thick ice deposits.
• The new work raises the possibility that ice-rich deposits also exist on the moon.
• The poles of Mercury and the Moon are among the coldest places in our solar system.
• Unlike Earth, the spin axes of Mercury and the Moon are oriented such that, in their polar regions, the Sun never rises high above the horizon.
• Consequently, polar topographic depressions, such as impact craters, never see the Sun.
• For decades, it has been postulated these so-called permanently shadowed regions are so cold that any ice trapped within them can potentially survive for billions of years.
• Previous observations of the poles of Mercury with Earth-based radar revealed a signature characteristic of thick, pure ice deposits.

 

Important info

• Mercury’s polar deposits to be dominantly composed of water ice and extensively distributed in both Mercury’s north and south polar regions.
• Mercury’s ice deposits appear to be much less patchy than those on the Moon, and relatively fresh, perhaps emplaced or refreshed within the last tens of millions of years.
• Previous radar and imaging studies of the Moon, whose polar thermal environments are very similar to those of Mercury, found only patchy, shallow ice deposits.
• The airless surfaces of Mercury and the Moon are scarred by many impact craters. These craters form when meteoroids or comets impact the surface.

 

Source: The Hindu Businessline