How will we extract water from the moon? In the microwave ● Saturn just became the planet with the most moons in our solar system ● How big can the Jurassic giants get?

How will we extract water from the moon? In the microwave oven

That water molecules are a common presence in the universe has already been established. The fact that there is enough water on the moon to support the functionality of a permanent base is another proven fact, because otherwise we would not be talking today about the space race between China and the US to build this base.

It was also proved that water in a high concentration is at the poles of the Moon in the form of ice. Well, here it is, because water needs to be extracted from there. And this is indeed a challenge that the general public has not noticed. Especially since the ice is not pure, but mixed with lunar soil (regolith). Recently, a group of researchers from the University of Florida proposed an innovative solution, which they also published in the journal Acta Astronautica.

In particular, water will be extracted using a device similar to a microwave oven. To better understand, imagine that you are heating something in a microwave oven. It has happened to you more than once that the container you just got can be hot in some places and cold in others. This happens because the water molecules are excited by the microwaves, and this causes them to change their position in the material, usually towards the surface. Well, that’s the principle.

To test whether they could extract water from the regolith using this process, the aforementioned researchers created soil samples that perfectly mimic lunar soil. In fact, they produced regolith-like samples from polar regions, as well as regolith-like samples from more arid regions.

The samples were placed in ceramic containers lined with absorbent paper, then heated in a microwave oven. In just 25 seconds, they managed to extract somewhere from 55 to 67% of the amount of water in the samples. After 35 minutes, the result reached 90%.

Thus, say the authors of the study, they proved that the method is more than sufficient for extracting water from the regolith. Besides, technology is not rocket science either. It’s cheap, easy to transport and install every month. Oh, one more thing. The method did not work as well for materials with high water concentrations. The cited researchers say that due to more efficient conduction. But there is little chance that astronauts will find such materials on the moon.

Saturn became the planet with the largest number of satellites in our solar system

The planet Saturn has just been established as the 1st most personal moon, overtaking Jupiter. At the moment, the estimate is 117 moons, against only 95. This data was provided to us by the Minor Planet Center, the International Astronomical Union body that deals with these… …small celestial bodies, the moons being one of them.

The change comes after just two months ago the count showed Jupiter from 92 to 83 points. The problem, however, is related to the definition of the moon or, more precisely, the natural satellite. And that’s because there are no parameters, no dimensions, that would set the limits of natural stellite. Basically, any celestial body that orbits a planet can be considered a natural satellite.

Thus we reach the extreme limits of our solar system with Deimos, a natural satellite of the planet Mars, which is only 12.4 kilometers in diameter, and Ganymede, a huge moon of Jupiter, which is not only 5268.2 kilometers in diameter, but even has its own magnetic field .

Now, if we do the math, Saturn has trillions of dust and gas particles in its rings, we can’t even count. Fortunately, they don’t currently count as months and we have the ability to track as well.

The thing is, if you’ve been an avid fan of the planet Saturn, you don’t need to open the champagne just yet. The match is complete, and there are still hundreds of celestial bodies to be confirmed or disproved as satellites of the two planets. Therefore, the tension remains high. In fact, in the coming days we will receive a new calculation, with a new change in the situation. But we’ll keep you posted if something happens, so you don’t have to bite your hands with tension.

How big could the giants of the Jurassic Ocean grow?

Until recently, estimates of the size of Pliosaurus (a genus of aquatic reptiles from the Jurassic period with a skull similar to that of modern crocodiles) indicated that some specimens even reached 25 meters in length. And this meant that these monsters were one of the largest ocean inhabitants not only in the Jurassic period, but also in the entire history of life.

The problem was that not all scientists agreed with these data. There were rumors that in reality such animals did not exceed six or eight meters in length. This is not much, but it is still a quarter of what was said at first.

A solution to the problem may come from a team of paleontologists at the University of Portsmouth. People have identified four vertebrae in the archives of the Oxfordshire Natural History Museum that were discovered many years ago in sediments in the area, which are about 152 million years old.

Their new analysis showed that they most likely belonged to an animal of the pliosaur type. And measurements showed that at the time of death the specimen was 14.4 meters long. According to the authors of the study, this is about the same as two killer whales today. And this means that pliosaurs really were at the top of the food chain during the Jurassic period.

From the evidence we have, we know that pliosaurs ate most of the creatures they encountered, be it fish, crocodiles, or other marine reptiles. Traces of the teeth of such predators appear on numerous fossilized remains of aquatic animals. In addition, according to the authors of the reading study, the pliosaurus was the equivalent of the T-Rex in the ocean, only, lo and behold, it was larger, and the force created by its jaws far exceeded that of the famous American predator.

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