JAKARTA – After decades of uncertainty, researchers have confirmed the existence of a cold lunar carbon dioxide trap that could potentially contain solid carbon dioxide. This discovery is likely to have a major influence in shaping future lunar missions and could impact the viability of a continued robotic or human presence on the moon.
In the permanently shaded regions of our moon’s poles, temperatures drop below those in the coldest regions of Pluto, enabling the trapping of frozen carbon dioxide. In this cold trap, carbon dioxide molecules can freeze and remain in solid form even during peak temperatures in the summer months.
Future human or robotic explorers could use the solid carbon dioxide in these cold traps to produce fuel or materials to stay on the moon longer. Carbon dioxide and other potentially volatile organic matter could also help scientists better understand the origin of water and other elements on the moon.
Although cold traps have been predicted by planetary scientists for years, this new study is the first to unequivocally establish and map the existence of carbon dioxide cold traps. To find the coldest spot on the lunar surface, the researchers analyzed 11 years of temperature data from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment, an instrument that flew above NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
New research, published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters, which publishes a short-format high-impact report with immediate implications that covers all Earth and space sciences, suggests that this cold trap includes several pockets concentrated around the moon’s south pole. The total area of this carbon dioxide trap is 204 square kilometers, with the largest area at Amundsen Crater housing 82 square kilometers of traps. In this area, the temperature constantly stays below 60 degrees Kelvin (about minus 352 degrees Fahrenheit.)
The existence of frozen carbon dioxide traps does not guarantee the presence of solid carbon dioxide on the moon, but this verification makes it very likely that future missions could find carbon dioxide ice there, according to the researchers.
“I think when I started this, the question was, ‘Can we confidently say there is a frozen carbon dioxide trap on the moon or not?'” said Norbert Schörghofer, a planetary scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and lead author of the study.
“My surprise was that they were actually there. We may not be able to confirm their whereabouts, [mereka mungkin] one pixel on the map… so I think the surprise was that we actually found a pretty cool contiguous area, no doubt about it.”
If there really is solid carbon dioxide in this cold trap, it could potentially be used in a variety of ways. Future space explorers could use the resources in the production of steel as well as rocket fuel and biomaterials, both of which are essential for a robotic or human sustainable existence on the moon. This potential has attracted the interest of the government and private companies.
Scientists can also study lunar carbon to understand how organic compounds are formed and what types of molecules can be produced naturally in this harsh environment.
The frozen carbon dioxide trap could also help scientists answer longstanding questions about the origin of water and other volatiles in the Earth-moon system, according to Paul Hayne, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder who was not involved in the study.
Carbon dioxide could be a tracer of water and other volatile substances on the lunar surface, helping scientists understand how they arrived on the moon and on Earth.
“This should be a high priority site to target for future landing missions,” Hayne said. “It pinpoints where you might go to the lunar surface to answer some of the big questions about volatiles on the moon and their delivery from elsewhere in the solar system.” (E-4)
News Source: RRI.
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