Billions of years ago, a series of volcanic eruptions broke loose on the moon, blanketing hundreds of thousands of square miles of the orb's surface in hot lava. Over the eons, that lava created the dark blotches, or maria, that give the face of the moon its familiar appearance today.
Now, new research from CU Boulder suggests that volcanoes may have left another lasting impact on the lunar surface: sheets of ice that dot the moon's poles and, in some places, could measure dozens or even hundreds of feet thick.
...
It's a potential bounty for future moon explorers who will need water to drink and process into rocket fuel, said study co-author Paul Hayne."It's possible that 5 or 10 meters below the surface, you have big sheets of ice," said Hayne, assistant professor in APS and LASP.
Is it better to drink the water there, or burn it?
Journal Reference:
Andrew X. Wilcoski et al, Polar Ice Accumulation from Volcanically Induced Transient Atmospheres on the Moon, The Planetary Science Journal (2022). DOI: 10.3847/PSJ/ac649c
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Saturday May 21 2022, @12:12AM (5 children)
Can't be worse then Tang and recycled urine that they are currently drinking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @01:20AM (1 child)
Their water doesn't come from just urine-20% of their drinking water comes from recycled feces. This goes all the way back to the Mercury days when the astronauts brought Tang along to coverup the aftertaste of the fecal-water.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @12:14PM
Of course, that's not true. The Mercury astronauts just wore a diaper (the longest flight was about 24 hours). Their ship wasn't anywhere near sophisticated enough to be recycling anything.
And Tang wasn't invented by or for NASA. That was just a marketing campaign.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday May 21 2022, @01:43AM
If you think that's bad, you should see what everyone drinks on Earth.
(Score: 5, Informative) by unauthorized on Saturday May 21 2022, @07:12AM (1 child)
The H20 that comes out of recycling urine is no different than the H20 that comes out of rivers or the one you can find on the moon. However it absolutely can be worse, if any of that Moon dust [livescience.com] ends up in your drinking water you're going to have a very bad time. Human urine may be disgusting but it's made up of stuff that used to be inside you and it's not particularly dangerous.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday May 21 2022, @09:44PM
Sure it's different! The recycled urine we all drink on Earth is also loaded with industrial and pharmaceutical waste.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @01:27AM (1 child)
A Bengal monitor lizard was gang-raped by four men in the protected forests of Sahyadri Tiger Reserve. The real beasts seem to walk on two legs, not four
In a disturbing and disgusting act, a Bengal monitor lizard was allegedly gang-raped by four men in Sahyadri Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra.
Depravity seems to have sunk to an all-time low and human decadence seems to know no bounds. As if violating and raping adolescents, small children, and very senior citizens wasn’t enough, humans took to raping domesticated animals like dogs and goats. And now, debauchery seems to have hit the rock bottom, or what we hope is the rock bottom and there can be none lower.
Take, for instance, the incident in Maharashtra where a monitor lizard was allegedly gang-raped by four men in the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve. You read that right. Monitor lizard. Gang-raped.
Even those who have been somewhat desensitized to reading reports of domestic animals being thrashed, beaten and killed for “fun” and the wild animals cruelly poached, young ones torn from their mothers and smuggled for money, the bestiality is horrifying. To make it worse, the accused shot a video of raping the poor animal.
All this came to light when the four accused from Konkan — Sandeep Tukaram Pawar, Mangesh Kamtekar, Akshay Kamtekar and Ramesh Ghag — were trying to illegally enter the restricted zone of Kolhapur's Chandoli National Park for hunting. They were apprehended on March 31, and their phones were examined as a routine process. The authorities were perplexed to find the video of the rape which reportedly occurred in the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve.
The accused have been booked under the various sections of the law including the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA). The Bengal Monitor Lizard in question is a species that is conserved under the Schedule-1 of the WPA, which means that the law accords it the same level of protection as the national animal — the Royal Bengal Tiger or the national bird — peacock. So, if the crime is proven, the accused stand to face at least seven years imprisonment. But does that even count when the victim cannot even present their case in the court of law?
Psychologists and conservationists are equally shocked. We asked Delhi-based Dr Archana Gupta, a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist who works with sexual assault survivors to try and decipher the depraved mindset. She says that the act of rape goes beyond the urge of forced sex. “It is a question of asserting one’s power and dominance by overpowering the other’s will and dignity. These men treat the victim as a sum of body parts, but with no regard for the ownership of the body. It spells sheer sexual expression of sadism and aggression.”
She further says that this behaviour is extremely rare even for those who have heard about most perversions and helped heal the victims. “The four men definitely need psychiatric examination. One has heard horrifying stories of men raping dogs and even pregnant goats, but this sexual perversion is a new low.” In this case, Dr Gupta says, it is a question of displaying one’s bravado by dominating a wild animal. An animal that could be dominated by four grown men, but cannot kill even in self-defence.
Speaking to Times Now Digital, Pune-based wildlife biologist Dr Vira Kamath says that the Bengal monitor lizards are naturally shy animals that would rather stay away from humans. Like most wild animals, they do not attack unless provoked. Even when provoked, the venom of monitor lizards has a very mild effect on humans as the reptile uses its venom to kill small animals for food.
As per an ANI report, an inquiry is underway as to whether the victim monitor lizard survived the heinous act and whether the accused had done the same act with any other wild animal, according to Vishal Mali, Divisional Forest Officer, Chandoli National Park.
“Bengal Monitor Lizards are sensitive animals. Even if it survived the attack at that instance, it may not be able to survive the aftermath of the violation for too long. The cloaca (common chamber and outlet into which the intestinal, urinary, and genital tracts open) wall could have ruptured and it might have trouble with other life processes,” he says.
So, the next time you hear a horrifying tale about somebody’s unspeakable behaviour, think twice before saying: "They behaved worse than an animal." It seems that behaving "worse than an animal" has become the norm for some humans. Under such situations, one cannot help but wonder if it is animals that need to be restrained and caged, or humans. The real beasts in India seem to walk on two legs, not four.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @01:32AM
Damn, India now has Republicans??? After all that effort to give the brits a good boot in the ass too.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @01:46AM
I'm not really sure the point of this article. We've suspected for over a hundred and known for 30 years that the lunar poles contain water in the form of ice in deep dark polar craters. I think it was Clementine that first detected traces of water/ice at the poles in the early 90s.
No offense intended to the poster/editor, but I'm sick of people today who love to recycle old news and proclaim it as a NEW DISCOVERY for those precious internet points. Is this some manifestation of "equity" I keep hearing about? Are people really thinking that "It's discrimination that I wasn't alive in 1990 to make these discoveries back then, but I deserve to get recognition for them today because I 'feel' I would have though of them 30 years ago if I was alive back then."
What's next? An announcement from an Earth-noob of a new treatment for diabetes called Insulin?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday May 21 2022, @04:14AM (6 children)
Just avoid the waters of Mars.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday May 21 2022, @04:21AM (5 children)
At least it is not water from Uranus.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @04:49AM
I will refrain myself.
Signed,
The Classy AC
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Saturday May 21 2022, @05:45PM (3 children)
We need to stop that adolescent joke.
The proper pronunciation of Uranus is more like URINE-us.
Thus it would be a better source of water than you think.
Why is it so difficult to break a heroine addiction?
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday May 21 2022, @09:52PM (2 children)
Supposedly astronomers normally pronounce it urr-unus
I've also heard arguments for oor-unus (based, I believe, on the original pronunciation of the god's name)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 22 2022, @08:03PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 23 2022, @12:02AM
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @04:30AM (5 children)
All yous need is Brawndo!
It's what aristachuslingus craves for.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ironrose on Saturday May 21 2022, @06:28AM (4 children)
If you are going to do this, at least do it right.
Aristos=best, superior. Archus=rule(r), or principle. Lingua=tongue.
Now, you submitted "aristachuslingus", which we cannot butt parse as arista=best, achus=ache?? lingus=as given. So to whom do you refer, oh arse-longing AC tongue?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @07:17AM
ari AC longing tongue what!?
Ok, so break it down for me again. With Feeling, this time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @02:25PM
Now write it down a hundred times.
And if it's not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @04:21PM (1 child)
Not to mention that the grandparent mixed Latin with Greek. I believe the Greek for “tongue” would be something like “glossa.”
(Score: 1) by Ironrose on Saturday May 21 2022, @11:44PM
So he did. A Cunning Linguist, no doubt.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @05:58PM
Nobody cares about ancient volcanoes unless super-men can go and and drink from them.
(Score: 2) by Username on Saturday May 21 2022, @09:49PM (2 children)
It's possible that unobtainium is 5 meters below the surface as well.
Anything is possible someplace you've never been.
It's all theory until someone drills.
Frack the moon.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @10:40PM (1 child)
fracking would near guarrantee water is present 5 to 10m underground..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 22 2022, @11:58PM
I could see the first time they did it and they start jumping up and down saying "water's coming out! Water's coming out!!"