Dopo l'acqua, scoperte microsfere magnetiche sul lato buio

After water, it’s magnet . Chandrayaan-1 has discovered and confirmed for the first time the presence of magnetic spheres on the far
side of the moon—the side we cannot see from the earth. This could theoretically mean a longer and secure stay for astronauts on moon.

There had been speculation for long but the confirmation was made by Sara, the instrument jointly made by Isro, European Space Agency and Sweden. The findings by Sara, not yet published, were made known by top scientists on the sidelines of the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Indian Academy of Sciences at IISC. The discovery of magnetic forces comes after the discovery of water molecules by M3—the Nasa instrument on Chandrayaan-1.

Nasa on Friday said there wasn’t just a whiff of water on the moon, but plenty. The impact carved out by its satellite LCROSS, that slammed into a crater near the moon’s south pole a month ago, kicked up at least 24 gallons of water. “We got more than just whiff. We practically tasted it with the impact,” said Peter H Schultz, a geological sciences professor at Brown University and a co-investigator of the mission.

The magnetic spheres confirmation has also indicated that the absorpotion and release of hydrogen because of the magnetic spheres is lesser than was thought before—just 20% of an earlier estimated 100%. “The amount of inventory of hydrogen on the lunar surface would be much less than we thought earlier,” said Anil Bhardwaj, the principal investigator for Sara.

The confirmation of micro-magnetic spheres has thrown open an exciting theoretical possibility—a safer stay for astronauts. It is believed that micro magnetic sphere resists or deflects radiation from solar winds hitting the moon’s surface . In case bigger magnetic spheres could be built, astronauts could live within those spheres and survive the radiation.

What makes the magnetic spheres on the moon significant is that there is no atmosphere on the moon which enables solar winds to hit the moon’s surface directly . The impact of radiation is direct. If at all an astronaut has to survive on a planet without atmosphere it would then have to be with the aid of magnetic spheres. Sara has also discovered lot of different ions like direct solar wind ions, reflected solar wind ions and nightside ions.

Fonte: economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/Chandrayaan-discovers-magnet-on-moon/articleshow/522...