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Article: Reservoir of water hides high above Earth. (water vapor in mesosphere)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- August 23, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Earth's upper atmosphere, a region drier than the Sahara Desert, harbors unexpected amounts of water vapor, according to data from a pair of satellites. The discovery could bolster a controversial theory that thousands of house-size comets are hitting the atmosphere each day.
"What we have found is astonishing. We really don't have answers," says Robert R. Conway of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.
Conway and his colleagues made their discovery last week using an instrument called the Middle Atmosphere High Resolution Spectrograph Investigation (MAHRSI), part of a satellite released and later picked up by the space shuttle Discovery. ...