NASA Finds Water On The Surface Of The Moon

Moon (doc. NASA)

JAKARTA - The American Space Agency (NASA) has again found something surprising on the Moon. The find is in the form of water that astronauts claim can be used while exploring the Moon.

Citing Science Daily, Tuesday, October 27, using the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), NASA has confirmed that there is water on the surface of the Moon. Precisely located in one of the largest craters on the Moon named Clavius Crater.

The water at the site has a concentration of 100 to 412 parts per million or the same amount found in a 12 ounce water bottle. The findings have been published in the latest issue of Nature Astronomy.

🌔 ICYMI ... using our @SOFIATelescope, we found water on the Moon's sunlit surface for the first time. Scientists think the water could be stored inside glass beadlike structures within the soil that can be smaller than the tip of a pencil. A recap: https://t.co/lCDDp7pbcl pic.twitter.com/d3CRe96LDm

- NASA (@NASA) October 26, 2020

NASA compared the surface of the Moon to the Sahara desert which claims to have no water source at all. But according to NASA, the Sahara desert actually has 100 times the amount of water that SOFIA can find on lunar soil.

NASA says although the numbers are small, it currently raises questions about how water can survive the lunar surface where there is no air.

"Without a thick atmosphere, the water on the sunlit surface of the moon would simply disappear into space. But somehow we saw it. Something was producing water, and something must be trapping it there," said lead author of the findings, Casey Honniball.

In that regard, NASA has several theories. One of them suggests that the micrometeorites raining down on the Moon's surface carried small amounts of water that could have settled on impact.

Another is that the solar wind sends hydrogen to the surface of the Moon and then undergoes chemical reactions with oxygen-carrying minerals in the soil to create hydroxyl. Radiation from the micrometeorite series can then convert the hydroxyl into water.

On water storage, NASA stated that it could become trapped in tiny bead-like structures in the ground that were formed from high heat and created by the collision of micrometeorites. Another possibility is that water is hidden among the grains of the Moon's soil and protected from the sun.

SOFIA will continue its observations of the Moon in other Sunlit locations and during different Moon phases, NASA will learn more about production, storage and movement across the Moon.

For information, understanding the nature of water on the Moon will be important for future Moon missions including Artemis who will see the first woman and the next man land on the Moon in the near future.