There be water on the moon..

[CyranoAH]

What? Water on the moon? Then there can be pirates!! Yarrr!!

[Treize69]

No, WHALERS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hKbl4AeqpM

[Serenity]

That is a point of contention.  Ever hear of the Rare Earth hypothesis?  It might be that life (systems of increasing free energy) is common throughout the universe, but that almost all of it is microbial life.

We tend to think of the human being as the end-point of a linear process of progressive evolution, but we are anything but.  The more I learn about biology, the more we seem to be a result of fortunate blunders characterized by inefficiency and suboptimal adaptations...all of which is inversely proportional to complexity.  The more simple you are, the better adapted you are to changing conditions, and your adaptations to the environment are more likely efficient and optimal.  There's a lot to be learned from bacteria.

The popular theory amongst my intelligent friends is that life in general is particularly rare because, despite the fact that there are millions of planets, there are only so few in the proper place relative to the center of their galaxy to support life. Earth just happens to be in EXACTLY the right spot for something or other to line up and not melt us or something silly like that. I'll update this post to make sense when the codiene wears off, or however you spell that...

[LLv34_Snefens]

That would be the Drake equation Serenity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

[Anaxogoras]

I thought the Drake equation indicates the prevalence of life, while serenity is saying the opposite.

[MORAY37]

I thought the Drake equation indicates the prevalence of life, while serenity is saying the opposite.

The Drake equation does exactly that Anax. 

I personally believe we will find, at some point, that life is everywhere there is water.  It makes sense.  We've seen organic molecules in so many places at this point, that it would be hard NOT to find life. 

I also think that eukaryotic (multi-cellular, nucleic) life is sparse, and that prokaryotes (mostly single cell, without membrane bound organelles) will be found in abundance.  If you look at our own planet's biotope, most species are unicellular and microscopic prokaryotes.

It would only be logical to expect that trend to continue throughout the "neighborhood".

[Ghosth]

Ahh but the moon DOES have an atmosphere. However because it has much less gravity, it has a lot less atmosphere.

Even if that water turns to gas on impact, is blown into space. Its still in the same orbit. And the vast majority of it will get sucked back down the gravity well over time.

[Die Hard]

The moon has a negligible atmosphere. While the moon has one sixth of the Earth's gravity (0.165 G to be exact) its atmosphere is less than one hundred trillionth the density of the Earth's atmosphere. Solar winds are stripping the atmosphere off atom by atom because the moon doesn't have a magnetic field strong enough to protect it.

[Simba]

"because if mankind is the best that the Big Guy upstairs can do, then the entire universe is doomed."

Supposed to have made man in his own image, according to the fairy story, so what's the beef?