For many years we had thought that the water and volatile components inside the Moon were practically non-existent. However, that theory has been changing over time. Now, we have new evidence that there is much more water on the Moon than we thought.
Using satellite data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument aboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 probe, which measures reflected sunlight in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths, a team of scientists from Brown University (USA). Has studied the lunar pyroclastic deposits, layers of rock that probably formed from large volcanic eruptions and whose magma was carried to the surface of the moon from deep within the planet, and have found a large number of deposits with elevated amounts of water inside.
“We look at the water in the deposits that are on the surface today, but these deposits are the result of magma that originally came from deep within the lunar interior. Therefore, because magma products have water, the The deep interior of the moon must also contain water “, explains Ralph Milliken, leader of the work that publishes Nature Geoscience.
To estimate the amount of water trapped in the pyroclastic deposits, the scientists had to isolate the reflected sunlight from the thermal energy emitted by the hot surface of the moon. They carried out spectrophotometric tests to see which wavelengths bounced off or penetrated the surface, finally determining the chemical and mineral compounds of the different lunar zones. These findings reinforce the evidence that the volcanic wells on the Moon contain water, and lots of it.
“Different minerals and compounds will absorb and reflect light in different ways, so in our case we studied the wavelengths where [molecules] H2O and OH absorb light. We found that there were higher absorptions, or less reflected sunlight, in these. wavelengths for pyroclastic deposits, indicating that they contain OH or H2O “, clarifies Milliken.
“ The idea that there may be water in most pyroclastic deposits suggests that the samples collected in the different Apollo missions are not anomalous and that the inner part of the Moon could be wet. The water could have been transported by the impact of asteroids. before the Moon completely solidified , “says Milliken.
This surprising discovery will allow the extraction of water from the Moon. “The fact that there are large reservoirs of water could benefit future lunar expeditions , since it would avoid having to transport it, ” explains Shuai Li, co-author of the work.
Where does this water come from?
The volcanic droplets do not contain much water – barely 0.05% of its weight – but, fortunately, the deposits are large, and the extraction of the water would not be very complicated , since these deposits are in easily accessible places. The study does not specify how much water there is, but it has managed to identify all the areas where there is a presence of water to continue being analyzed in future missions to our satellite.
Reference: Ralph E. Milliken, Shuai Li. Remote detection of widespread indigenous water in lunar pyroclastic deposits. Nature Geoscience, 2017; DOI: 10.1038 / ngeo2993
Image credit: Milliken lab / Brown University
