ED54B-09
Morning Water on the Big Round Rock in the Sky

Friday, 18 December 2015: 17:25
310 (Moscone South)
Timothy A Livengood, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, United States
Abstract:
There is a little bit of water on the Big Round Rock in the sky. The Rock turns slowly and so it has morning and day and night. The little bit of water sticks to the rocks on the Rock at night, when it is very cold and the water makes ice. When the Sun puts light on it, the water gets hot and goes up in the air. Really, the water is the air. The wind moves the water back the way it came, so the water goes to where the ground is cold and then it sticks to the very cold ground again. Then, the turning Rock slowly carries it back to the morning and it goes over and over like that. This keeps all of the Big Rock's water close to the morning, even though the Big Rock turns all the time. A box on the ground on the Big Rock that is three feet long on each side could catch enough water each month for one drink of water, but a box that is way big could catch a lot more water. We know that the water is there because we can find very little tiny rocks that hit the tiny water bits. Where there is more water, there are not so many of the little tiny rocks and where there is less water, there are more of the little tiny rocks.