Earth news is a bit of a worry-provoking one these days, this could be one reason why the internet has pulled all the stops to communicate mass excitement over the discovery of huge amounts of water on the moon.
These findings could be useful for humans who want to leave Earth immediately and live on the moon. (We’re only half kidding).
While scientists previously suspected that water existed in the moon’s shaded, colder parts – such as its poles, where it would be stationary – a pair of studies published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy confirm that there is a large amount of water. Even its sunset regions.
“Our signal was that we know that familiar water – we know – may be present towards the moon’s sunlight,” said Paul L. Hertz, director of the astrophysics department at the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. “Now that we know it’s there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises interesting questions about relevant resources for deep space exploration.”
Even so, in the darker, colder regions of the moon, water data is always softer. Part of the challenge of finding water on the moon is that the Earth’s atmosphere, which evaporates profusely, interferes with land-based efforts to see water on the moon without interfering with the atmosphere. Space telescopes or binoculars of very high altitude can solve this problem. In this case, NASA used the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), an infrared observatory mounted on a Boeing 747 aircraft that takes observations from the air. Sophia data strongly suggest that yes, moonlight is water on the surface.
This is especially unusual considering the temperature cycle on the moon: during the day the moon is 250 degrees Fahrenheit, above the boiling point of water. So why doesn’t water evaporate immediately? Entitled “The Molecular Water Found on the Sun’s Moon by Sophia” as explained in the study, scientists have provided detailed evidence that the water observed can be trapped in naturally formed glass on the moon’s sunlight fields. Being bound in glass means that the water is impermeable to the heating and cooling cycles that will normally evaporate the water. The moon does not have an atmosphere and gravity is very low, so it is impossible for the earth to hang on its surface like water.
The second study, titled “Micro Cold Traps on the Moon”, lists all possible sites that are cold enough to freeze for ice, and where water exists without being trapped in the glass.
The authors state that “our results suggest that the distribution of water trapped in the lunar poles and as a tool for future missions was previously thought to be possible.”
To put this discovery in context, NASA says the Sahara Desert contains 100 times more water than what is found on the lunar surface.
Surprisingly, it turned out that without being trapped in the glass, there is no shortage of potential places for water to exist on the moon. According to the study, the moon’s south polar region contains about 40,000 square kilometers of lunar surface from water ice.
This study is changing the way scientists look at the moon. Maybe it’s more than a dark, dry and rocky place.
“Without a dense atmosphere, the water on the Sun’s lunar surface should simply be lost in space,” said Casey Honeybill, lead author of the study, in a statement. “Yet somehow we’re seeing it. Something is producing water, and something must be trapping it there.”
According to NASA, there are some ways that water can be stored – either “structures like structures in the ground”, or “hidden” between “lunar soil grains and shelter from sunlight”.
So, what does all this mean for lunar colonization? Well, that doesn’t mean that once climate change comes, humans can go there. But that means NASA astronauts could probably spend significantly more time on the moon before they need to come home for re-success.
“The presence of significant amounts of water on the lunar surface could help its international partners establish a sustainable base there in the context of NASA’s Artemis program,” Avi Loeb, head of Harvard’s astronomy department, told the salon via email. This will be the first step forward. “
Lobeb added: “There is no doubt that our future lies in space, not only for national security and commercial gain, but primarily for scientific research aimed at opening new horizons in our culture.”
