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The US space agency NASA has confirmed “clearly” that there is water on the surface of the moon. NASA has confirmed that there are water molecules on the surface of the moon as we see it from Earth.
The hope that one day they would build a base on the moon – this discovery vastly increased it.
“We already knew that there can be water in the part of the moon where the sun shines, but now we know that yes, there really is water on the lunar surface,” said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s space physics division.
NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, abbreviated ‘Sophia’, described the discovery in an article in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy.
Water molecules have two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atoms. Sophia says that some hydrogen has been found on the lunar surface before, but it is unclear if it is in the form of water.
This time, however, a volcanic water molecule called Clavius was found in the southern hemisphere of the moon.
How much is this water?
Casey Hannibal, a member of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, says his data shows that one cubic meter of lunar soil contains the equivalent of about 12 ounces of water.
By comparison, the amount of water in the Sahara desert floor on Earth is 100 times the amount of water in the soil on the Moon.
So the amount of water on the moon’s surface is very low, but it still raises some new questions for scientists.
They are: How is water created? How can you survive in the airless environment of the moon? Will it be possible to use this water as a resource for future astronauts?
More research is needed to answer these questions, says Jacob Bleacher, another NASA scientist.
Scientists have already confirmed the existence of ice in the craters at the two poles of the moon where the sunlight never falls.
Hannah Sergeant, a scientist at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, told the BBC that the latest findings show that the moon actually has much more water than we previously thought. As a result, the possibility of using the moon’s water has greatly increased, he says.
This moon water storage can be used for many purposes.
Paul Hein, a professor at the University of Colorado, says there may be hundreds of billions of ice deposits on the moon’s surface. So this discovery made it possible for scientists to search for them at the same time.
Experts say that finding ways to extract water from the moon could be the basis of a “lunar economy.”
BBC science correspondent Laura Foster says that perhaps one day the water from the moon’s chest could be used for human consumption, food cultivation or rocket fuel, which would be useful during a mission to further space. .
The US space agency has previously said that it will send male and female astronauts to the moon in 2024 and that it will be used to prepare for missions to Mars in the 2030s.
Furthermore, producing rocket fuel on the Moon would be much cheaper than producing it and transporting it to Earth. Hydrogen and oxygen are used to make fuel for spacecraft, and they can use lunar water.
Source: BBC
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