{"id":98410,"date":"2020-10-27T11:13:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T08:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/nasa-discovers-the-moon-is-wet-now-scientists-want-to-go-back\/"},"modified":"2025-01-23T10:30:55","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T07:30:55","slug":"nasa-discovers-the-moon-is-wet-now-scientists-want-to-go-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nasa-discovers-the-moon-is-wet-now-scientists-want-to-go-back\/","title":{"rendered":"#NASA discovers the Moon is wet \u2014 now scientists want to go back"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a4154ea4f122\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a4154ea4f122\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nasa-discovers-the-moon-is-wet-now-scientists-want-to-go-back\/#Water_and_more_water\" >Water and more water<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nasa-discovers-the-moon-is-wet-now-scientists-want-to-go-back\/#New_research\" >New research<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Moon was for a long time considered to be bone dry, with analyses of returned lunar samples from the Apollo missions showing only trace amounts of water. These traces were in fact believed to be due to contamination on Earth. But over the past two decades, re-analyses of lunar samples, observations by spacecraft missions, and theoretical modeling&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/digging-deep-in-search-of-water-on-the-moon-26775\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">have proved<\/a>&nbsp;this initial assessment to be wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWater\u201d has since been detected&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/40481-moon-meteorite-mineral-hidden-lunar-water.html#:%7E:text=A%20mineral%20that%20requires%20the,moon%2C%20study%20team%20members%20said.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">inside the minerals<\/a>&nbsp;in lunar rocks. Water ice has also been discovered to be mixed in with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/115\/36\/8907\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lunar dust grains<\/a>&nbsp;in cold, permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But scientists haven\u2019t been sure how much of this water is present as \u201cmolecular water\u201d \u2013 made up of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen (H<sub>2<\/sub>O). Now two new studies published in Nature Astronomy&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41550-020-01222-x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">provide an answer<\/a>, while also giving an idea of how and where&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41550-020-1198-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to extract it<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Water_and_more_water\"><\/span>Water and more water<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The term water isn\u2019t just used for molecular water, but also also for detections of hydrogen (H) and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/hydroxyl-group\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hydroxyl<\/a>&nbsp;(OH). Although H and OH could be combined by astronauts to form molecular water at the lunar surface, it is important to know in what form these compounds are present initially. That\u2019s because this will have an impact on their stability and location under lunar surface conditions, and the effort required to extract them. Molecular water, if present as water ice, would be easier to extract than hydroxyl locked in rocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The presence of water on the Moon is scientifically interesting; its distribution and form can help address some profound questions. For example, how did water and other volatile substances arrive at the inner Solar System in the first place? Was it produced there or&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/ncomms11684#:%7E:text=We%20determine%20that%20a%20combination,the%20water%20in%20the%20Moon.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">brought there by asteroids or meteorites<\/a>? Knowing more about the specific compound could help us find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/365543\/original\/file-20201026-13-1gc1h4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=758&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The lunar surface, seen by Apollo 11. NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Understanding how much water is present, and its location, is also incredibly useful for planning human missions to the Moon and beyond. Water represents a key resource that can be used for life-support purposes \u2013 but it can also be split apart into its constituent elements and put to other uses. Oxygen could replenish air supplies, or be used in simple chemical reactions at the lunar surface to extract other useful resources from the regolith (soil composed of small grains). Water could also be used as rocket fuel in the form of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This means that the Moon has great potential to become a refueling base for space missions further into the Solar System or beyond. Its lower gravity and lack of atmosphere means it would require less fuel to launch from there than from Earth. So when space agencies talk of&nbsp;<em>in-situ<\/em>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/how-to-build-a-moon-base-120259\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">resource utilization at the Moon<\/a>, water is front and centre of their plans, making the new papers extremely exciting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"New_research\"><\/span>New research<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instruments on board various spacecraft have previously measured \u201creflectance spectra\u201d (light broken down by wavelength) from the Moon. These detect light coming from a surface to measure how much energy it reflects at a specific wavelength. This will differ based on what the surface consists of. Because it has water, the Moon\u2019s surface&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC6130389\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">absorbs light at 3?m wavelengths<\/a>&nbsp;(0.000003 meters). However, absorptions at this wavelength cannot distinguish between molecular water and hydroxyl compounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Using the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/kitzu.org\/sofia-nasa-infrared-observatory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NASA\/DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)<\/a>&nbsp;telescope, flown at 43,000 feet, the team behind one of the new papers observed sunlit sections of the Moon\u2019s surface in wavelengths of 5-8?m. H<sub>2<\/sub>O results in a characteristic peak in the spectrum at 6?m, and by comparing a near-equatorial area as a baseline (thought to have almost no water) with an area near the south pole, this study reports the first unequivocal observations of molecular water under ambient conditions at the lunar surface at an abundance of 100-400 parts per million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is several orders of magnitude too large for most of the water to be adsorbed onto regolith grain surfaces. Instead, the authors suggest that the water they have observed must be locked up inside glass formed by tiny meteorites impacting and melting already hydrated regolith grains. Alternatively, it could be present in voids between grain boundaries, which would make it easier to extract. Where exactly this water is sited would be of extreme interest for future explorers as it would dictate the processes and energy required to extract it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Luckily, the other paper used new theoretical models, based on temperature data and higher resolution images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, to refine predictions of where conditions are right for molecular water to be tr<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ed as ice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Previous research has shown already that there are such kilometers-wide \u201ccold traps\u201d in permanently shadowed areas&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/281\/5382\/1496.full\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">near the poles<\/a>, where water ice may be present. Evidence from orbiting spacecraft, however, was inconclusive about this being molecular water or hydroxyl. The new study finds that there are also abundant small cold traps where conditions permit water ice to accumulate \u2013 on the scale of centimeters or decimeters. In fact, such traps should be hundreds to thousands of times more numerous than larger cold traps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team calculates that 0.1% of the total lunar surface is cold enough to trap water as ice, and that the majority of these icy cold traps are at high latitudes (&gt; 80\u00b0). This is particularly near to the lunar south pole, narrowing down the choice of future landing sites with the highest chance of finding trapped water ice. However, it is important to realize that the two studies investigated areas at different latitudes (55\u00b0-75\u00b0S vs &gt;80\u00b0S) and therefore cannot be compared directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nevertheless, these latest discoveries further enhance our understanding of the history of water on our nearest neighbor. They will undoubtedly strengthen plans for a return to the Moon. Instruments such as the European Space Agency\u2019s (<a href=\"https:\/\/exploration.esa.int\/web\/moon\/-\/59102-about-prospect\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PROSPECT payload on Luna 27<\/a>) will be able to make measurements on the Moon to \u201cground-truth\u201d these tantalizing glimpses of the wealth of information yet to be discovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This article is republished from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Conversation<\/a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/james-mortimer-125966\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">James Mortimer<\/a>, Postdoctoral researcher in Planetary <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science<\/a> and Exploration,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/the-open-university-748\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Open University<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/mahesh-anand-125967\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mahesh Anand<\/a>, Professor of Planetary Science and Exploration,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/the-open-university-748\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Open University<\/a>&nbsp;under a Creative Commons license. Read the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/water-on-the-moon-research-unveils-its-type-and-abundance-boosting-exploration-plans-148669\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">original article<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/category\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology<\/a><\/span> category.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/syndication\/2020\/10\/27\/nasa-discovers-the-moon-is-wet-now-scientists-want-to-go-back\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Moon was for a long time considered to be bone dry, with analyses of returned lunar samples from the Apollo missions showing only trace amounts of water. These traces were in fact believed to be due to contamination on Earth. But over the past two decades, re-analyses of lunar samples, observations by spacecraft missions,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/tnw?filter_last=1&fit=1280,640&url=https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/10\/image-8-4.png&signature=76df96e51c1dff309c6b36f215ae259a","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[74279,75709,5025,5026,75921,72694,67821],"class_list":["post-98410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-atmosphere","tag-european-space-agency","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-planetary-science","tag-solar-system","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}