It’s official now. At last we can confirm the presence of ice water on the surface of the Moon, according to the latest NASA reports collected by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers have been looking for signs of water on Earth’s natural satellite for years. However, definitive evidence of water ice had not been found until recently.
Researchers from the University of Hawaii led by Shuai Li worked with a team from Brown University and with Richard Elphic from NASA’s Ames Research Center to make this breakthrough. The team used NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper to detect specific signatures that prove there is ice on the Moon’s surface. Specifically , icy water is found at the bottom of some craters, which seem to have been in shadow for billions of years, located at the north and south poles of the Moon.
The resurgence of the Moon as a destination
It is true that researchers have for decades predicted the presence of “cold traps” within the craters of the moon. However, these super cold regions freeze water to such an extent that water vapor can also freeze.
Previous research had indirectly noted possible signs of ice on the surface, but other studies contradicted the previous ones by stating that these signs could be explained by factors such as reflective lunar soil or other phenomena.
“Most of this water ice on the Moon lies in the shadows of craters near the poles, where the warmest temperatures never reach -121 ° C,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. from NASA.
This discovery gives us additional hope to the dream of maintaining human enclaves on the surface of the moon in order to colonize this planetary object within our reach. We are now one step closer to exploring the Moon and showing how accessible its ice is.
Water could be a critical step in maintaining human life on the Moon. For astronauts, it would represent much more than being able to drink water. Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen could potentially power rockets from the lunar surface, saving astronauts the need to return to Earth for more fuel for additional space explorations. It would be the first step in building a space economy.
And with entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk clamoring for ways to establish space colonies on other planets and get off Earth, the discovery of icy water on the moon could be a promising sign that your dreams could come true.
NASA scientists have commented that they will continue to study more lunar areas in hopes of finding out how this ice emerged on our satellite.
Reference: Shuai Li et al. Direct evidence of surface exposed water ice in the lunar polar regions, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018). DOI: 10.1073 / pnas.1802345115
Image credit: NASA
