http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091113-water-on-the-moon.html

Pretty interesting.

Discuss.

I hear they want to blow up the moon because of this water discovery.

could this mean there's life on the moon?

No.

big deal mercury has water too -_-

It would be really funny if it turned out Neil Armstrong spilled a lot of water but they're trying really hard to cover it up.

Who are you to say so concretely? There could be bacteria hidden in a crevice somewhere for all we know.

There is no atmosphere, nothing can be living. There could be fossilized bacteria though?

Not all bacteria need an atmosphere.

Name an anaerobic organism that can survive being bombarded by x ,gamma, and UV rays AND!! not get squished by space rocks. (and also extreme high and low temperatures)

What if we can't name such an organism because we haven't discovered it yet?

You cannot have a living organism that can live on the moon because it can get as hot as 120C. The reason we have ice on the moon is because of craters that never see sunlight. So this organism would either be fried or frozen but cannot be called living. It would be too hot so the water would evaporate out or too cold that the liquid in the organism would freeze and burst the membrane. Even if it survives the temperature, you still got radiation that they have no protection from.

You're being too much of a skeptic Johnny, how do you know that an organism can not live up to 120C? The arachea are extremophiles, they could live up to high temperatures in hot springs and very cold places, why not the possibility of some bacteria living on the Moon?

Because 120C is 20C above boiling and organisms cannot survive without water. I have never heard of an organism go beyond 100C although archaea has been found to survive at 100C but that is the limit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrolobus_fumarii
Apparently it can live up to 130C but I do not think it could compete with radiation.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 14 2009, 8:24 am by MasterJohnny.

http://www.bookrags.com/research/radiation-resistant-bacteria-wmi/

There's one species in particular that I can't seem to find the name of that I'm thinking of, it was on an episode of NOVA or something, but it can survive in space (not grow of course, but its one tough little collection of cells)

You mean urine?

Why don't they just bomb Mars? I thought we're trying to find water over there, not back at the moon.

Mars is too far away. The moon is a scant 240,000 miles away.

@Krazy No there couldn't. Bacteria need an atmosphere, first of all, and second of all, bacteria are Earth only. I'm saying no to life concretely because water does not imply life, and the moon lacks an atmosphere. (And never had one) This kinda hinders abiogenesis.

@Kaias Yes, yes they do.


You're thinking of tardigrades. They are terrifying.

Bottled moon water. Bet that'll sell good

Tardigrade... is an animal? not a bacteria? Terrifying indeed.