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© Associated Press
Water was first discovered in the sunlit part of the moon, and this indicates that water can be distributed over its entire surface, not just in cold places that are not exposed to sunlight.
This was announced by the US space agency NASA. According to a statement on its website, the discovery was made by the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), the world’s largest flying observatory.
According to the BBC, the “unequivocal discovery of molecular water” will boost NASA’s hope that it can provide a lunar base; the objective is that this base is maintained with the resources available there.
A few days ago, NASA announced that it would announce an “exciting new discovery for the moon” without giving details.
First confirmation
Water molecules in Clavius crater, one of the largest visible from Earth, located in the southern hemisphere of the moon. Previous observations on its surface had detected forms of hydrogen, but could not distinguish between water and its relative hydroxyl (molecule, compound of hydrogen and atom of oxygen).
The presence of liquids and the assumption that it was water, on which part of the plans of the nascent space industry to study the resources of the moon, was not a secret, but it was not known if the molecules found in the observation were they water or these are other compounds formed from hydrogen and oxygen, or their proportion.
Judging by the Clavius crater, the concentration of water in a cubic meter of soil is between 100 and 400 to 1 million. Water can cover an area of at least 40,000 square kilometers and according to Hannah Sargent, an astronomer at the Open University of Milton Keynes, this gives “more opportunities for potential sources of water on the moon”, and the question “where to build a base in the moon is closely related to where the water is. “
In the journal Nature Astronomy, two separate articles discuss both water molecules and the existence of small surfaces on Earth’s satellite, where there can be a constant supply of water.
Help on the way to the return of the moon.
NASA would like to return to the moon by 2024 on a manned mission. The observatory was carried on a modified Boeing 747 high in the atmosphere, so the SOFIA telescope with a diameter of 3 meters can provide a clear enough view of the universe. The US space agency hoped this would include a sufficiently detailed image of the visible side of the moon in support of its program, which has been contested by several countries.
Research is carried out with the help of infrared light and scientists can determine exactly which substance reflects that light. Individual substances are shown in different colors, and therefore water molecules are unambiguously registered.
