More Moon Water

New information suggests to researchers that the moon's interior may contain even more water than that of all the Great Lakes—after believing for forty years that the moon was completely dry. However, when they say water, the scientists mean hydroxyl, a compound which consists of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom, bound to a mineral called apatite.  We were unable to find the water until now because it is in such low concentrations, locked away within minerals like apatite.

By analyzing rock samples collected from the Apollo missions, it has now been figured that the moon's water content is between 64 parts per billion and 5 parts per million—or a hundred times more water than previously thought. Supposedly, if the water were in liquid form, and not locked away within moon minerals, the water would cover the surface of the moon in a sea about one meter thick.

Perhaps these new findings could help support the theory of the moon's origins: some large object impacted the earth shortly after the formation of our solar system. The debris from the impact coalesced and to form the moon.

Epsilon Eridani

There exists another solar system similar to ours: Epsilon Eridani. It is located about ten light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus, or the River. Observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope, which measures infrared radiation, have shown that this system contains two asteroid belts, a ring of comets, and possible planets. One of the planets in this system was officially identified in 2000, via the radial velocity method of detection, meaning that scientists observed the way in which the planet pulls on the host star, causing it to wobble slightly.

The inner asteroid belt is located about three astronomical units from the host star, comparable to the location our own solar system's asteroid belt. The second belt is about twenty astronomical units from the star, which is about where Uranus orbits in our solar system. The ring of comets is thirty-five to ninety astronomical units away from the star, similar to our Kuiper Belt.

New Record in Space

There is a new record for the biggest change in velocity by a spacecraft: on June 5, 2010, the Dawn spacecraft achieved an accumulated acceleration of 2.7 miles per second, or 9,600 miles per hour. The previous standard was set by Deep Space 1, launched in October of 1998, which flew past asteroid 9969 Braille and comet Borrelly. Dawn is on a long journey towards two asteroids, Vesta and Ceres, in hopes of finding out more about the early universe. It will arrive at Vesta in 2011 and 2012, and Ceres in 2015.

Dawn travels through space in the same way as Deep Space 1: through ion propulsion. In four days, Dawn utilizes only 37 ounces of xenon propellant, allowing the spacecraft to go from zero to sixty miles per hour over that time. The reason why Dawn has surpassed Deep Space 1's record is because it has been firing its engines, one at a time, accumulating acceleration. Over the course of Dawn's trip, its engines will have been operating for 2,000 days, allowing the spacecraft to achieve 24,000 miles per hour, but it will not be using up very much propellant. With only 16 gallons of fuel, Dawn can reach 5,500 miles per hour.

Dawn is expected to surpass another one of Deep Space 1's records for the longest duration of powered flight. Come this August, that record should belong to Dawn.

Update on the Jupiter Impact

Last July 19, 2009, something big crashed into the side of Jupiter. By studying pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of the impact site and comparing them to pictures taken during the July 1994 Jupiter impact from Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9, scientists are now calling the culprit a rogue asteroid, of about 1600 feet wide. This asteroid's impact was comparable to the force of a few thousand nuclear exploding, according to NASA.

Hayabusa Returns

After making physical contact with an asteroid five years ago, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's project Hayabusa is making its return to Earth on June 13. The craft was originally launched on May 9, 2003, destined for the asteroid Itokawa. On November 25, 2005, the spacecraft touched down for a time on the asteroid—only the second spacecraft to do so, next to NASA's NEAR-Shoemaker which traveled to Eros in 2001, but Hayabusa was the first to sample the asteroid surface material.

Hayabusa has traveled 1.25 billion miles over the last seven years, but the journey has finally come to an end. Hayabusa will be entering Earth's atmoshpere at the second-highest re-entry velocity in history, according to one NASA scientist. NASA is helping JAXA to guide the spacecraft's return.