Ice-shaped Water In Lunar Crater Is Much Less Than Expected

Permanent shadowed Crater (PSR) which is estimated to store ice water with a thickness of a few meters (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA - The latest lunar crater analysis makes it necessary for researchers to reconsider plans to utilize water reserves from the moon. The reason is, the lunar surface is still too young for the long-term resistance of ancient water ice reservoirs.

Quoted from Sciencealert, most craters containing permanent shadow pockets are less than 2.2 billion years old. This figure makes predictions for the estimated ice water in the moon change.

These findings change predictions about our expectations of finding ice water on the moon and that dramatically changes estimates of how much ice water exists on the moon. Ancient ice water reservoirs are no longer expected," said Norbert Schörghofer physicist from the Institute of Planetary Sciences in the United States (US).

Humans themselves are aware of the presence of water on the moon. However, big questions arise about the amount of water there and where the water is hiding. Therefore, researchers continue to examine areas covered with permanent shadows (PSR) such as inner craters.

When this crater is trapped by PSR, water is believed to have accumulated for billions of years. With temperatures not more than -163 degrees Celsius, the bottom of the crater is expected to have ice sheets of thickness of a few meters. Unfortunately, these findings suggest that the PSR has not been protected from the sun for a long time.

The hope of finding this water originated from the scientists' belief about the solar system that was bombarded by comets and asteroids 3.8 billion years ago. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, and Mars were crushed in this incident.

The volcanic activity that is still hot will also make water free from the inside of the moon. If PSR was around that time, they could have caught the water. However, research results show that PSR's age in the moon is still relatively young.

"The longest average PSR age is 1.8 billion years. There is no ancient ice water reservoir on the Moon," Schurgghofer said.