Moon’s water may be widely distributed: Study
The water appears to be present day and night, though it is not necessarily easily accessible
Anew analysis of data from India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission and Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests that Moon’s water may be widely distributed across the surface, not confined to a particular region or type of terrain.
The water appears to be present day and night, though it is not necessarily easily accessible, according to the study published in the journal
“We find that it doesn’t matter what time of day or which latitude we look at, the signal indicating water always seems to be present,” said Joshua Bandfield, a senior research scientist with the Space Science Institute and lead author of the new study. “The presence of water doesn’t appear to depend on the composition of the surface, and the water sticks around,” Bandfield added.
The results contradict some earlier studies, which had suggested that more water was detected at the Moon’s polar latitudes and that the strength of the water signal waxed and waned according to the lunar day (29.5 Earth days).
The findings could help researchers understand the origin of Moon’s water and how easy it would be to use as a resource.
If the Moon has enough water, and if it is reasonably convenient to access, future explorers might be able to use it as drinking water or to convert it into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel or oxygen to breathe.
The new finding of widespread water suggests that it may be present primarily as OH, a more reactive relative of H2O that is made of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom.
OH, also called hydroxyl, does not stay on its own for long, preferring to attack molecules or attach itself chemically to them.