UH researcher assists in moon ice search

Scientists have long suspected that ice exists in areas of the moon shrouded in permanent darkness.

That theory may soon be confirmed, thanks to the efforts of a University of Hawaii researcher and his colleagues.

Paul Lucey, a researcher with UH’s Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, was part of a team that used data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to identify unusually bright areas in craters near the moon’s south pole. The analysis considered both surface temperatures and data about how much laser light is reflected off the moon’s surface, according to a UH release.

The team’s findings will be published in the August edition of the journal Icarus.

Lead author Elizabeth Fisher, a graduate student at Brown University who worked with Lucey following her undergraduate studies at UH, said the analysis indicated that the coldest places near the moon’s south pole are also the most reflective, indicating the possibility of ice.

The analysis zeroed in on the floors of deep craters that do not receive direct sunlight where temperatures dip below minus-260 degrees.

The researchers believe that whatever ice may exist on the moon is likely surface ice (as opposed to a thick sheet of ice) and could be mixed with the surface layer of soil, dust and small rocks referred to as regolith.

While the study suggested the presence of ice near the moon’s south pole, it did not find similar indications at the opposite pole.

“What has always been intriguing about the moon is that we expect to find ice wherever the temperatures are cold enough for ice, but that is not quite what we see,” said co-author Matt Siegler, a researcher with the Planetary Science Institute in Dallas.