Sep 21, 2010 07:02 GMT  ·  By
Map showing reflected near-infrared radiation from the Sun, as they bounce off the Moon
   Map showing reflected near-infrared radiation from the Sun, as they bounce off the Moon

According to astronomers, it would appear that the large quantities of water that have been discovered on the Moon are nothing but bad news for experts and space agencies that were hoping to construct large telescopes on the surface of Earth's natural satellite.

The water amounts may be a boon for planned manned bases there, but they are a big no-no if accurate scientific studies are to be conducted from the lunar surface.

The entire idea behind Moon observatories was that the satellite provided a vapor-free atmosphere, that would have allowed for extremely sensitive observations to be conducted using very large telescopes.

But the presence of water vapors in the atmosphere puts a major dent in those plans, because they favor a process called scattering. This is the same process that makes star twinkle on Earth.

While this may be the joy of poets, it's an astronomer's worst nightmare. Experts need light to come in through the atmosphere as unaffected as possible.

But scattering either breaks apart the incoming photon beams, basically rendering the observatories useless, or it absorbs important parts of the wavelengths making up a particular star's light.

“Last year, scientists discovered a fine dew of water covering the moon,” explains Chinese Academy of Sciences expert astronomer Zhao Hua, who was a member of the team that conducted the new study.

“This water vaporizes in sunlight and is then broken down by ultraviolet radiation, forming hydrogen and hydroxyl molecules,” the expert goes on to say, quoted by Space.

Details of the new investigation will be presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Rome, Italy, which is being held today, September 21.

The main problem astronomers discovered is the presence of hydroxyl molecules in the lunar atmosphere. They have a rather peculiar behavior when sunlight hits them.

“At certain ultraviolet wavelengths, hydroxyl molecules cause a particular kind of scattering where photons are absorbed and rapidly re-emitted,” Zhao explains.

“Our calculations suggest that this scattering will contaminate observations by sunlit telescopes,” he goes on to say.

But there is a way to make good use of the Moon when it comes to astronomical observations, experts say, and that is to install radio telescopes on the surface of the satellite.

This will shield the observatories from influences coming from the Sun or the Earth, and will also allow them to peer through the large concentrations of hydroxyl molecules.