Yesterday, NASA reported that their LCROSS mission to find water on the moon had been successful. They found lots of it, with about 100kg of water vapour and ice being thrown up as they crashed into the Cabeus crater near the moon’s south pole.
“We are ecstatic,” said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California. “Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapour plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact. The concentration and distribution of water and other substances requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water.”
I have written before about why such a find is important (you can read it here).
Not everyone is happy about the news.
“It certainly casts doubt on the moon-cheese-hypothesis,” said one NASA spokesman. “The wild ideas of Prof. Wallace and Dr. Gromit now look highly unlikely.”
Wallace and Gromit were quick to stand by their research.
“Our documentary, A Grand Day Out, is clear evidence that the moon is made from cheese and populated by skiing robots that look like 1950s ovens. This is just an attempt by American scientists to discredit the work of the British.”
A British Government spokesman said, “Schools should teach the controversy. Whilst many scientists insist that the evidence points to a rocky and icy lunar landscape, there should be room in classrooms to discuss alternative viewpoints – even cheesy ones.”
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