Astronauts who traveled to the Moon aboard the Apollo XI (1969), XV (1971) and XVII (1972) missions brought rocks with plenty of water. In May of this year, after successive analyzes, it was determined not only that there was water, but that it was more than could be expected.
As published in 2008 by the magazineNature, rock fragments ormulti-colored glassesfrom the satellite, with striking green or orange colors, contain a great variety ofvolatile elements, among themWater. The richest samples in the liquid element contain traces of up to 46 parts per million. The geological calculations carried out indicate that the water came from the interior of the Moon, and that it was probably contained inmagma that erupted through lunar volcanoes to the surface more than3,000 million years.
But if the volcanoes on the Moon expelled 95% of its water … where did all the liquid go? Since lunar gravity is too weak to hold back an atmosphere, the researchers speculate that some of the water vapor from the eruptions could have escaped into space. Another part may have slipped into thecold chickensfrom the satellite, where it would persist in the form oficein the craters.
NASA thus launched theLunar Recon Orbiter(LRO), with the main objective of ending speculation about the lunar surface itself. In 2009, a study released by the journal Science based on observations from NASA instruments aboard the Indian probe Chandrayaan-1, revealed the existence of water on the Earth’s satellite. Finally, in May of this year, a new analysis of the stones obtained by theApolo XVIIit showed that the amounts of water were far greater than could be expected.
