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In an announcement made to the press on Monday (26), the US space agency NASA confirmed the discovery of water on the illuminated side of the Moon’s surface. Until today, scientists had only detected solid water (ice) in dark regions. of the Earth’s natural satellite, both on the hidden and visible sides of the Earth, where the Sun never hits and temperatures reach minus 184 degrees Celsius.
The illuminated side – which is not fixed, since the Moon has a rotation time of just over 27 days and the area that receives sunlight varies according to movement – has a temperature that can exceed 200 degrees Celsius. The space agency notes that water molecules (H2O) were detected, but it is not known in what state. Based on initial analyzes, it is more likely to be in the form of vapor trapped in the ground and not ice (as seen on the satellite earlier) or liquid as on Earth.
The discovery was made through the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia). It is an observatory with a nine-foot (2.74-meter) telescope mounted on a Boeing 747 airplane, which flies high in the atmosphere, allowing a broader view of the Solar System and the universe. This is an initiative between NASA and the German Aerospace Center.
The detected water is found in Clavius Crater, in the southern hemisphere of the Moon and one of the largest visible from Earth. Hydrogen had been detected in the region before, but it was not known whether it was water or another hydroxyl (OH) compound. The data indicate that the water discovered by Sofia is equivalent to 350 milliliters trapped in one cubic meter of soil. By comparison, the Sahara desert has 100 times more water than was discovered on the Moon.
But this water is not concentrated in a single field. NASA scientists believe that about 40,000 square meters of the lunar surface have the ability to trap water. It is also not sufficient to guarantee whether the Moon already had life forms or conditions to support life in the past.
How the investigation was conducted
The person responsible for the discovery is Sofia, a telescope quite different from the ones you know. As well as being mounted in a plane above the clouds and seeing farther than Earth’s observatories, this is more than just super space scope. It sees in infrared, a spectrum of the light field that our eyes cannot see.
Infrared telescopes are used for almost everything in astronomy, from the detection of new planets to the discovery of chemicals on the surface of other planets. This is because every chemical element on the known periodic table leaves an infrared trail. Including hydrogen, essential for the formation of water.
Suspicions that there was water on the Moon began in 1994, when the Clementine probe, sent by NASA to fly over the Moon, detected an infrared light signature with a wavelength of 3 micrometers, which matches the trace left by the hydrogen. However, it was not possible to know if it was water or another molecule that has hydrogen in its composition (hydroxyls).
The spectral signature Sofia detected has a wavelength of 6 microns. “The fundamental vibration of molecular water produces a 6-micron spectral signature that is not shared by other hydroxyl compounds,” says the study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. In other words, with this signature, it could only be water.
Ok … but so what?
It cannot be said that we found an ocean, a lake or even a puddle on the Moon, but then what is special about this discovery? According to NASA scientists, we had already found traces of hydrogen on Earth’s natural satellite, but only now have we been able to certify with certainty that this hydrogen has bound with oxygen to form water molecules and nothing else.
Another important novelty was the discovery of H2O in a region of the Moon that receives light from the Sun. As if it were a coin, the satellite has two sides: the visible side of the Earth and the hidden side, which never appears to the earthlings. Both sides receive sunlight at different times, so there is not one side that is always dark and another that is always light. But there are regions, mainly at the bottom of some craters, on both sides of the Moon, that never get sunlight. In these places, traces of liquid water (i.e. ice) have already been found. In sunlit places, this is new.
Also, answer the question “is there water on the bright side of the moon?” Opens up a number of other questions. “Without a thick atmosphere, the water from the lunar surface that receives sunlight should be lost into space,” explained Casey Honniball, study author and researcher at NASA and the University of Hawaii. “Yet somehow, we are seeing [água na Lua]. Something is generating it and something must keep it there. “
It is not yet known how this water got there. The most probable hypotheses are that the H2O molecules have been formed thanks to the solar winds that carry hydrogen to various parts of the solar system; or that they were brought by micrometeorites that collided with the Moon over millions of years. Discovering the answer to these questions can lead us to better understand how the universe works.
The fact that there is water on the moon also changes the prospects for future manned missions there. Not only is it an essential ingredient for life and for the maintenance of human colonies there, it also aids in the production of rocket fuel for humanity’s next destination in space: Mars.
Mission Artemis: return to the moon
Furthermore, the discovery could help astronauts better prepare for a new satellite expedition. “We don’t know yet if we can use it as a resource, but learning about water on the Moon is the key to our exploration plans in the Artemis program,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, referring to the project to bring astronauts from Return. to the satellite in the coming years.
“Water is a valuable resource, both for scientific purposes and for use by our explorers,” said Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s chief exploration scientist. “If we can use the resources of the Moon, we can transport less water and more equipment to help enable new scientific discoveries.”
The Artemis program is named after the Greek goddess of the Moon, Apollo’s sister, who named NASA’s first manned mission to Earth’s natural satellite in the 1960s. The return will be divided into three missions beginning in 2021.
In November 2021, the Artemis 1 mission will send an unmanned spacecraft to the Moon. In 2023, Artemis 2 is expected to take its first astronauts into lunar orbit. And finally, Artemis 3 will take the first woman, along with a man, to touch the ground of the Moon again.
According to the estimate of the space agency, the operation should cost a total of 28,000 million dollars and will serve as the first stage of a larger mission: to get astronauts to Mars.
