IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v443y2006i7113d10.1038_nature05167.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

No evidence for thick deposits of ice at the lunar south pole

Author

Listed:
  • Donald B. Campbell

    (Cornell University)

  • Bruce A. Campbell

    (Smithsonian Institution)

  • Lynn M. Carter

    (Smithsonian Institution)

  • Jean-Luc Margot

    (Cornell University)

  • Nicholas J. S. Stacy

    (Defence Science and Technology Organization)

Abstract

Lunar ice on the rocks The rim of the Shackleton crater at the lunar south pole is a candidate crash site for NASA's LCROSS probe (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite), due to launch in 2008. The plume of debris kicked up by the crash is to be analysed in the hope that it will reveal the water thought to be there. Suggestions of lunar ice date from 1996 when data from the Clementine spacecraft gave some indications of the presence of ice on crater walls at the south pole. Now using high-resolution radar imagery, the radar scattering parameter thought indicative of thick ice deposits has been found also to match radar echoes from the rock-strewn walls and ejecta of young impact craters at all lunar latitudes. There is no evidence for thick ice, though there could be grains of water ice spread more thinly through the lunar soil.

Suggested Citation

  • Donald B. Campbell & Bruce A. Campbell & Lynn M. Carter & Jean-Luc Margot & Nicholas J. S. Stacy, 2006. "No evidence for thick deposits of ice at the lunar south pole," Nature, Nature, vol. 443(7113), pages 835-837, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:443:y:2006:i:7113:d:10.1038_nature05167
    DOI: 10.1038/nature05167
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature05167
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature05167?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:443:y:2006:i:7113:d:10.1038_nature05167. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.