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The moon may hold water in more places and in larger quantities than scientists have suggested in the past.
The finding is based on two studies, published in Nature Astonomy – which examined new data from the US space agency NASA. The discovery could be important for long-term planned human bases on the moon. It could mean that there are enough resources on the moon itself to provide clean water and possibly help produce rocket fuel.
Until about 10 years ago, scientists believed that the moon was mostly dry. Then a series of finds provided evidence that water ice spread in small amounts over parts of the moon. The ice was thought to be in areas permanently blocked by sunlight.
But in one of the new studies, NASA said it was able to confirm the presence of water molecules in sunlit parts of the lunar surface. The space agency says the identification came from data collected by its SOFIA airborne observatory. SOFIA is a Boeing 747SP aircraft equipped with a powerful telescope.
The research was led by Casey Honniball of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. “Without a thick atmosphere, the water on the sunlit lunar surface should be lost into space,” Honniball said in a statement. “Yet somehow we are seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there. “
Scientists have suggested that the source of the water may have been comets, asteroids, solar wind or interplanetary dust. The new research provides evidence that water may be surviving on sunlit lunar surfaces because it is attached to minerals.
“A lot of people think that detection I have made it water ice, which is not true, ”Honniball told a news conference to announce the find. “It’s just the water molecules, because they are so dispersed that they don’t interact with each other to form ice water or even liquid water.”
The second study focused on so-called “cold traps” on the moon. These are areas of the lunar surface that exist in a state of permanent darkness where temperatures are below minus 160 degrees Celsius. Scientists say that such cold temperatures can retain frozen water for billions of years.
The researchers say they were able to reconstruct the size of the cold traps and where they are from images and temperature readings from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. They identified cold traps as small as a few meters wide and others up to 30 kilometers wide.
Planetary scientist Paul Hayne from the University of Colorado, Boulder led the research on cold traps. He estimated that there are probably “tens of billions” of traps. “Since the little ones are too small to see from orbit, despite being vastly more numerous, we still can’t identify the ice within them, ”Hayne said. “Once we are on the surface, we will do that experiment.”
Hayne’s team says the new research suggests that more than 40,000 square kilometers of the moon’s surface may have the ability to trap water in the form of ice. That estimate is 20 percent larger than previously anticipated, Hayne said.
Jacob Bleacher is the chief exploration scientist for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. He told reporters that the agency believes that it is very important to know more about the origin of the water and how accessible is.
“Water is extremely critical to deep space exploration. It is a resource of direct value to our astronauts,” said Bleacher. He noted that water is heavy and expensive to transport from Earth.
“As long as we don’t need to pack water for our trip, we have a opportunity to carry other useful items with us, ”he said. That may include materials that could be used to conduct larger science experiments on the moon.
I am Bryan Lynn.
The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse and NASA reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the reports for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.
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Words in this story
generate – v. produce something or cause it to occur
asteroid – n. objects made of rock and metal that orbit the sun, but are smaller than planets
detect – v. discover or notice the presence of something
vastly – adv. to a great extent in an extremely great way
accessible – adj. able to be reached or used
opportunity – n. a period of time or situation in which something can be done
