According to a recent study, trillions of pounds of water may be strewn across the moon, trapped in microscopic glass beads that formed when asteroids collided with the lunar surface.
The findings, published Monday in Nature Geoscience, were cobbled together by Chinese scientists who examined the first lunar soil samples returned to Earth since the 1970s.
Does Moon Have Source Of Water?
The beads range in size from the width of one hair to several hairs; the water content was only a tiny fraction of that, according to Nanjing University researcher Hejiu Hui. Because there are billions, if not trillions, of these impact beads, there could be a significant amount of water, but extracting it would be difficult, according to scientists.
Because of the ongoing bombardment of hydrogen in the solar wind, these beads may produce water indefinitely. The findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Monday, are based on 32 glass beads chosen at random from lunar debris returned by the Chang’e 5 moon mission.
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Possibility Of Having Water In Space
These impact beads can be found all over the place as a result of the cooling of melted material released by oncoming space rocks. Water could be extracted by heating the beads, which could be accomplished by future robotic missions. More research is needed to discover whether this is practical and, if so, whether the water is safe to drink.
Based on samples retrieved by the Apollo moonwalkers more than a half-century ago, previous investigations discovered water in glass beads generated by lunar volcanic activity. These, too, might offer water for future crews as well as rocket fuel.
NASA hopes to return astronauts to the lunar surface by the end of 2025. They plan to go to the south pole, where perpetually shadowed craters are said to be filled with frozen water.
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