Lunar Rocks!
Released on - 6/16/2010 3:46:38 PM
The Man on the Moon won't be able to swim and splash about just yet, but it seems as if there is more water on the Moon than we had originally thought. This is good news for us humans because without water, we have no chance of being able to survive. The Moon is one of the few places in the Solar System that we might be able to acclimatise to in the future. And in order to do that successfully, we need to have naturally occurring water.
Water on the Moon
Recently, a team at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, led by Francis McCubbin, published a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In the report, the team said we might be able to find a lot of water hidden below the surface of the Moon. Missions to the Moon have established that there is already a certain amount of water that lies frozen in the craters that dot the lunar surface. Ice is also to be found under the grey dust that coats the Moon.
But, until now, few have considered exploring beneath the surface of Moon to find water. Until the team at the Carnegie Institution of Washington said, "Water may be ubiquitous within the lunar interior". We always thought the Moon was dry but water might be hidden inside its rocky interiors.
But No Lunar Waterfalls
Don't imagine that reservoirs of water are bubbling away, impatient to gush forth or that there might be lunar waterfalls. The estimated water content is paltry; but significantly more than we had originally thought. The team thinks that the water content is roughly about 5 parts per million, which is at least double the amount humans had previously estimated.
The reason that water occurs on the Moon is because it was created when a huge object hit the Earth. The object was probably about the size of the planet Mars and it collided with Earth more than four billion years ago. The residual matter that was thrown up from Earth compacted together and helped create the Moon. As a result, magma was formed and while it was cooling, a certain amount of water molecules might have been preserved inside it.
The team from the Carnegie Institution of Washington has studied the Apollo rock samples that were collected about 40 years ago from the Moon. Within them, they discovered compounds of oxygen and hydrogen which led them to believe that water could probably exist inside the lunar rocks.
Water on the Moon
Recently, a team at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, led by Francis McCubbin, published a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In the report, the team said we might be able to find a lot of water hidden below the surface of the Moon. Missions to the Moon have established that there is already a certain amount of water that lies frozen in the craters that dot the lunar surface. Ice is also to be found under the grey dust that coats the Moon.
But, until now, few have considered exploring beneath the surface of Moon to find water. Until the team at the Carnegie Institution of Washington said, "Water may be ubiquitous within the lunar interior". We always thought the Moon was dry but water might be hidden inside its rocky interiors.
But No Lunar Waterfalls
Don't imagine that reservoirs of water are bubbling away, impatient to gush forth or that there might be lunar waterfalls. The estimated water content is paltry; but significantly more than we had originally thought. The team thinks that the water content is roughly about 5 parts per million, which is at least double the amount humans had previously estimated.
The reason that water occurs on the Moon is because it was created when a huge object hit the Earth. The object was probably about the size of the planet Mars and it collided with Earth more than four billion years ago. The residual matter that was thrown up from Earth compacted together and helped create the Moon. As a result, magma was formed and while it was cooling, a certain amount of water molecules might have been preserved inside it.
The team from the Carnegie Institution of Washington has studied the Apollo rock samples that were collected about 40 years ago from the Moon. Within them, they discovered compounds of oxygen and hydrogen which led them to believe that water could probably exist inside the lunar rocks.
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