The finding had a huge effect on the potential ambitions of space agencies for constructing a Moonbase. However, it may also allow scholars to draw up a tale about how water has gone to earth. Its results could also pave the way for an understanding of the essential function of water in the internal solar system.
What Are We Talking About?
For years scientists have suspected some hydrogen in the Moon’s sunlight regions but they couldn’t tell if it was hydroxyl or molecular water.
The results were documented in a couple of studies in Nature Astronomy published on Monday, describing “unambiguous” molecular water detection and thin, icy water traps scattered around the luminary surface, including sunlight regions.
In the southern hemisphere of the Moon, the water molecules have been found in the Clavius Crater. This crater is one of the biggest in the world. The discovery was made using a flying telescope installed on a Boeing 747 plane using NASA’s Stratosphere Observatory on Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).
Casey Honniball, a postdoctoral scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, did not accept that water exists on the Moon despite prior evidence.
The recent discovery questions our view of the formation and continued use of water in a tough climate. Concerning the earth, the moon has a dense atmosphere that ensures ultraviolet radiation is blasted by the sun.
“Water on the sunlight lunar surface can only be lost into space without a dense atmosphere,” says Honniball. “We are looking at it somehow. There’s something that produces water, and something there has to trap it”, added Honniball.
WHERE THE WATER CAME FROM?
Two hypotheses remain of how water first appeared on the moon-
One is that micrometeorites can transport tiny concentrations of water to the lunar surface when it falls. The other is that a solar wind from the Sun will carry hydrogen to the surface of the Moon, a current of charged particles produced by the Sun. The minerals containing oxygen present in the lunar soil could lead to water produced with hydrogen.
However, neither of these hypotheses replies how water lasts on the Moon. The scientists behind the latest research think that it is stuck in the lunar soil in small, perforated structures. They can be formed by the crash of micrometeorites. The water could be put between grains of soil, which shield it from the light, as pockets of ice.
We need to wait for more to know the whole thing about it so stay tuned with us and stay updated.
