Abstract: As has been verified numerous times, water is on the moon. This ground breaking result is due to the pivotal observations of water by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI), and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). Similarly, ground based radar observations and instruments onboard the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft have detected water ice in the permanently shadowed regions of Mercury. While these observations document the existence of water on these planetary surfaces, they do not completely explain the origin.  Some proportion of this water maybe formed from a process known as recombinative desorption (RD) of solar wind implanted hydroxyls defects.  This reaction is driven by thermal excursions from normal solar heating and impact events with meteoroids.  I will present some modelling results utilizing experimental data on the formation and evolution of water on these key solar system airless bodies. 

*Refreshments: 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM (ES&T L1175)