More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Ancient volcanic eruptions on the moon could provide an unexpected resource for future lunar explorers: water.
Between 2 billion and 4 billion years ago, the moon was a volcanic hotspot. Tens of thousands of volcanoes were erupting on the surface, releasing hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of lava across the lunar surface.
This activity created massive rivers and lakes of lava similar to features in modern-day Hawaii, but on a much grander scale.
"They dwarf almost all of the eruptions on Earth," said Paul Hayne, assistant professor in the department of astrophysical and planetary sciences and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, in a statement.
Hayne is a co-author on a new study published this month in The Planetary Science Journal about potential sources of water on the moon.
When these lunar volcanoes erupted, it's also likely they released giant clouds made of carbon monoxide and water vapour. These clouds moved around and could have created thin, temporary atmospheres.
But it's also possible that the water vapour settled on the lunar surface and formed layers of ice that may have existed in craters at the lunar poles today. These ice sheets could be between dozens and hundreds of feet thick.
"We envision it as a frost on the moon that built up over time," said lead author Andrew Wilcoski, a doctoral student in the department of astrophysical and planetary sciences and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at CU Boulder, in a statement.
Had humans been alive on Earth when this occurred, a shadow of frost may have been visible at the border of night and day on the lunar surface, the researchers said.
As the NASA Artemis mission prepares to return humans to the moon and land at the lunar south pole for the first time later this decade, that ice could provide drinking water and serve as a resource for rocket fuel, Hayne said.
"It's possible that 5 or 10 metres (16 to 33 feet) below the surface, you have big sheets of ice," he said.
Past research has lent support to the idea that the moon may contain more water than previously believed. Hayne and his colleagues estimated in a 2020 study that nearly 6,000 square miles (15,540 square kilometres) of the lunar north and south poles could retain ice.
The study was included in a NASA announcement that year about discovering water on the moon.
Scientists have been trying to figure out where the water originated, which led the researchers to the volcano theory. They imagined the water vapour clouds forming like frost on the lunar surface, similar to the way it forms on Earth after a cold night.
Wilcoski and Hayne teamed up with Margaret Landis, a research associate at CU Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, to model what the moon was like a few billion years ago.
At the time, the moon was experiencing a volcanic eruption about every 22,000 years. The team calculated that 41% of the water vapour released during the eruptions could then form ice on the lunar surface.
That's about 18 quadrillion pounds (8.2 quadrillion kilograms) of volcanic water -- more water than the current level of Lake Michigan -- turning into lunar ice, according to the study. The thick polar ice caps may have even once been visible from Earth.
"The atmospheres escaped over about 1,000 years, so there was plenty of time for ice to form," Wilcoski said.
While most of that ice may still exist on the moon today, it is likely buried beneath several feet of lunar regolith, or dust.
"We really need to drill down and look for it," Wilcoski said.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”