Answer 1:
There is indeed evidence that there is ice on the
moon that was gathered by the recent Clementine
Mission from NASA. There isn't actually any
liquid water on Earth's moon though for several
reasons. To have stable liquid water you need
some very special conditions. The first of these
is the right temperature range. On Earth at sea
level, water can only be liquid between 0 degrees
Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) and 100 degrees Celsius
(212 Fahrenheit). Note that this is how the
Celsius system is defined; 0 degrees is the
temperature at which water freezes and 100 degrees
is the temperature at which water
evaporates.
What really complicates this
situation is the fact that the state of water
(solid (ice), liquid, or gas) is also dependent on
atmospheric pressure. As you get higher in
altitude, there is less pressure from the air
above you and water evaporates at a lower
temperature. What does this mean for boiling
water or cooking at higher altitudes. You might
notice that some foods have special directions for
cooking at high altitudes. From what I have said
above, why do you think this is the
case?
But back to the Moon. The moon has a
much smaller mass than the Earth (about 1.2% of
the Earth's mass) and so it doesn't have the
gravitational pull (where gravitational pull is
related to mass) that Earth does. This relatively
tiny gravitational pull has all sorts of effects
such as astronomers in really heavy space suits
being able to jump enormous distances and hit golf
balls over the horizon. Another effect is that
there isn't enough gravity to hold an atmosphere.
The gasses in an atmosphere are very energetic
and thus have greater energy than the Moon's
gravitational ability to hold them down as an
atmosphere. Clouds exist on Earth because of
water vapor condensing into tiny drops of liquid
water in the atmosphere. Given all of these
clues, do you think clouds can exist on the Moon?
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