Water Released from Moon During Meteor Showers

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  • 
    ID: 13315 Produced Video

    Apollo Moon Soil Radiation Experiment

    Sept. 17th, 2019
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    Profile of the Radiation Effects Laboratory at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Song: "Gateway Identified" from Universal Production Music. Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. || When a stream of charged particles known as the solar wind careens into the Moon’s surface at nearly 280 miles per second (450 kilometers per second), it enriches the Moon’s surface in ingredients that could make water, NASA scientists have found. In this experiment, planetary scientists Jason McLain and William Farrell, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, are testing how this process works and the chemical signatures it leaves behind, which can be detected by remote sensing or surface instruments. Using an ion gun at Goddard’s Radiation Effects Facility, scientists generate simulated solar wind and shoot it at a disc loaded with regolith inside a vacuum chamber. Then, they watch the chemistry that unfolds. By doing experiments like these, NASA scientists have found that as the Sun streams protons to the Moon, those particles interact with electrons in the lunar surface, making hydrogen (H) atoms. These atoms then migrate through the surface and latch onto the abundant oxygen (O) atoms bound in the silica (SiO2) and other oxygen-bearing molecules that make up regolith. Together, hydrogen and oxygen make the molecule hydroxyl (OH), a component of water, or H2O.See more here: NASA Scientists Show How Ingredients for Water Could be Made on Surface of Moon, a 'Chemical Factory' ||

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  • 
    ID: 11610 Produced Video

    LADEE Launch

    Sept. 29th, 2014
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    LADEE's launch in 2013 marked several firsts. It was the first payload to launch on a U.S. Air Force Minotaur V rocket integrated by Orbital Sciences Corp., and the first deep space mission to launch from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.The Minotaur V is a five-stage version of the Minotaur IV. It is designed to provide launches for small missions requiring geosynchronous transfer or translunar orbits.Wallops, located on Virginia's eastern shore, was established in 1945 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The oldest continuous rocket launch range in the United States, Wallops is a national resource for aerospace-based science and technology research using suborbital and orbital vehicles.NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley designed, developed, built and tested the spacecraft and will manage the 100-day science mission. After launch, Ames will control the spacecraft and execute mission operations.http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ladee/launch/#.VCl_8Oe7nNQ ||

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  • 
    ID: 11345 Produced Video

    NASA Downloads the Future

    Aug. 28th, 2013
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    LLCD will be NASA's first-step in creating a high performance space-based laser communications system. The LLCD mission consists of space-based and ground-based components. The Lunar Laser Space Terminal (LLST) is an optical communications test payload to fly aboard the LADEE Spacecraft and it will demonstrate laser communications from lunar orbit.The ground segment consists of three ground terminals that will perform high-rate communication with the LLST aboard LADEE. The primary ground terminal, the Lunar Laser Ground Terminal (LLGT) is located in White Sands, NM and was developed by MIT/Lincoln Laboratory and NASA. The ground segment also includes two secondary terminals located at NASA/JPL's Table Mountain Facility in California and the European Space Agency's El Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Spain. The main goal of LLCD is proving fundamental concepts of laser communications and transferring data at a rate of 622 megabits per second (Mbps), which is about five times the current state-of-the-art from lunar distances. Engineers expect future space missions to benefit greatly from the use of laser communications technology. To learn more about laser communications and the LLCD mission please click here. ||

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  • 
    ID: 11292 Produced Video

    Water on the Moon

    June 3rd, 2013
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    Since the 1960’s, scientists have suspected that frozen water could survive in cold, dark craters at the Moon’s poles. While previous lunar missions have detected hints of water on the Moon, new data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) pinpoints areas near the south pole where water is likely to exist. The key to this discovery is hydrogen, the main ingredient in water: LRO uses its Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector, or LEND, to measure how much hydrogen is trapped within the lunar soil. By combining years of LEND data, scientists see mounting evidence of hydrogen-rich areas near the Moon’s south pole, strongly suggesting the presence of frozen water. ||

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    ID: 20278 Animation

    Water Released from Moon During Meteor Showers: Animations

    April 15th, 2019
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    Scientists have discovered that water is being released from the moon during meteor showers. When a speck of comet debris strikes the moon it vaporizes on impact, creating a shock wave in the lunar soil. For a sufficiently large impactor, this shock wave can breach the soil’s dry upper layer and release water molecules from a hydrated layer below. The LADEE spacecraft detects these water molecules as they enter the tenuous lunar atmosphere. || Water is released from the moon during meteor showers, when micrometeoroid impacts breach the dry lunar surface and eject water molecules from a hydrated layer below. ||

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  • 
    ID: 4619 Visualization

    Tour of the Moon 4K Redux

    April 9th, 2018
    (updated Aug. 25th, 2023)

    The camera flies over the lunar terrain, coming in for close looks at a variety of interesting sites and some of the LRO data associated with them. Includes narration, music, feature titles, research sources, and the location and scale of the image center. Music Provided By Killer Tracks: "Never Looking Back" - Frederick Wiedmann. "Flying over Turmoil" - Benjamin Krause & Scott Goodman.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.This video is also available on the SVS YouTube channel. ||

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  • 
    ID: 20202 Animation

    LADEE Spacecraft Animations

    Feb. 7th, 2014
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    LADEE over the lunar surface with LLCD instrument || LLCD Ground Station operation || Wireframe view of LLCD || Full view of LADEE ||

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  • 
    ID: 10930 Produced Video

    Evolution of the Moon

    March 14th, 2012
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    From year to year, the moon never seems to change. Craters and other formations appear to be permanent now, but the moon didn't always look like this. Thanks to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, we now have a better look at some of the moon's history. Learn more in this video!This entry contains the Evolution of the Moon video in mutliple formats, including stereoscopic 3D in both side-by-side and individual left/right channel versions. It also includes a narrated and non-narrated version. Each individual video is labeled to make it easier to find the version that works for you! ||

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