NASA finds 'significant' water on moon

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/11/13/water.moon.nasa/index.html

(CNN) -- NASA said Friday it had discovered water on the moon, opening "a new chapter" that could allow for the development of a lunar space station.

The discovery was announced by project scientist Anthony Colaprete at a midday news conference.

"I'm here today to tell you that indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit; we found a significant amount" -- about a dozen, two-gallon bucketfuls, he said, holding up several white plastic containers.

The find is based on preliminary data collected when the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, intentionally crashed October 9 into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus crater near the moon's south pole.

After the satellite struck, a rocket flew through the debris cloud, measuring the amount of water and providing a host of other data, Colaprete said.

The project team concentrated on data from the satellite's spectrometers, which provide the best information about the presence of water, Colaprete said. A spectrometer helps identify the composition of materials by examining light they emit or absorb.

Although the goal of the $79 million mission was to determine whether there is water on the moon, discoveries in other areas are expected as studies progress, Colaprete and other scientists said at the briefing at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near San Francisco, California.

"The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," the space agency said in a written statement shortly after the briefing began.

Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, said the latest discovery also could unlock the mysteries of the solar system.

He listed several options as sources for the water, including solar winds, comets, giant molecular clouds or even the moon itself through some kind of internal activity. The Earth also may have a role, Wargo said.

"If the water that was formed or deposited is billions of years old, these polar cold traps could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data," NASA said in its statement.

"In addition, water and other compounds represent potential resources that could sustain future lunar exploration."

UFOs One Year at a Time: 1969

(Below) Frencq, France, August 1969
(article published in October 1973)

A UFO IN THE SKY OF THE BOULONNAIS?

In the sight of his camera, during two seconds,
the display of an object out of time at the border of the worlds

By Marc Desoutter.

It is truly a bomb which was thrown by Clause Plessis, Saturday evening, at the Brasserie Liégoise [local pub], at the meeting of the Cercle d'Etude des Phénomènes Spatiaux [Circle of Space Phenomena Studies] when he presented the exclusive photograph of an unidentified flying machine taken by an amateur photographer in August 1969 to the members of C.E.P.S. A few times ago, on the tip by a friend, the president of C.E.P.S had paid a visit to a person who, it was said, had strange documents in his possession. Claude Plessis heard this person and he was quickly excited by the revelations that he made and by the document which was given to him.
Here is the extraordinary history such as the author of photograph told it to Mr. Plessis.

By the time to take a second shot

"I really like walking in the country, so, I frequently enjoy to make walks through the area, equipped with my camera. On a beautiful after midday of August, I walked in the Boulonnaise countryside, between Frencq and Etaples. At a certain place I had the sudden desire to take a photograph, judging that the landscape was worth it. I tallied a portion of the landscape in my sight and I SUDDENLY SAW APPEARING BEHIND THE HILLS, A CLOUD OF STRANGE ASPECT. I took a shot and decided to take a second photograph. By the time I winded the film, the "cloud" had disappeared. That hardly lasted two seconds. I very quickly forgot this strange event and it is only when the film was developed that I saw that I had captured this curious object on the film."
Claude Plessis did not stick to this quite simplistic explanation. Admittedly this cloud, if it is a cloud, presents all the characteristics of a lenticular cloud, called by the specialists an Alto-cumulus-lenticularis. The formation of these clouds remains very mysterious and their composition poses a enigma. It is a quite rare phenomenon but which already occurred sufficiently enough so that one is not astonished too much by its appearance. What is certain, in any case, is that they have the reputation to be extremely dangerous without anyone being able to truly explain the reason for that. In August 1915, for example, at the top of a hill, in Gallipoli [1], a cloud of this kind had landed. 250 soldiers penetrated in it and disappeared. Certain planes which crossed these clouds were disintegrated or fell down mysteriously.
What intrigued Claude Plessis is that a lenticular cloud does not disappear as quickly as the one which volitilized in front of the author of the photograph. Moreover, this type of cloud is found at 5000 meters and it seems curious to find one at a height of a few hundreds of meters.

Claude Plessis managed to get the negative and it sent it in Paris in order to have it examined by specialists. For the president of the C.E.P.S it is not a lenticular cloud but indeed of an Unitenified Flying Object.

Waiting for mankind's evolution

This extraordinary document was not the only point of discussion of the people in charge of the C.E.P.S., Mr. Jacques Delescluse, Mr. Michel Steers, astrophysicist, Paul Plessis and surrounded by the members. It was talked about the recent facts which occurred around September 10 in Equihen and which were noticed by many witnesses. They were not "saucers" but balls, 80 centimetres in diameter, blue and red colors and comprising several branches. According to the C.E.P.S., they may be probes. A thesis has been proposed: we enter a new phase observation on behalf of those who study us, there are no inhabited machines anymore but extraterrestrial probes which would have the mission to carry out studies in an indirect way, the direct contacts not being currently considered possible. The thesis of Aime Michel was evoked: Since centuries, the extraterrestrials studied the evolution of humanity while waiting for us to reach a sufficient level to seek to establish a contact.
The next meeting of the C.E.P.S will certainly relate to the results of the expertise of the photograph of the U.F.O taken in 1969.
In the month of December, C.E.P.S. will study, undoubtedly, very closely too, the first results of Pioneer 10 which, launched two years ago, will arrive in the surroundings of Jupiter, the largest planet of our solar system, it has twelve satellites, at 778 million km of the Sun.

UFOs in outer space, in the neighborhood of earth and the moon, filmed by NASA human astronauts during wild and crazy early missions into the final frontier. The fantastic purple moon! Oh my!

In 2267, the USS Enterprise was inadvertently propelled backwards through time to the year 1969. In that year, the ship was an entirely unknown design. Its immense size and ability to climb rapidly through the atmosphere exceeded what was then state of the art. It was initially taken for a UFO, forcing Kirk and Sulu to mount an expedition to recover the hard evidence. Ultimately, Spock devised a method of returning to the future that essentially erased their presence in the past. (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday")

Astronautas da Apolo 11 registraram um estranho UFO
em órbita do planeta Terra em 16 de julho de 1969