Explained: Why discovery of water on Moon’s sunlit surface is important

Water On The Moon: Previously, water was thought to be limited to cold, shadowed places. Now, SOFIA has detected water molecules in a crater visible from Earth. This indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface.

NASA has announced that its Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) telescope has confirmed the presence of water on the sunlit side of the Moon for the first time, implying that water may be distributed across the lunar surface and not limited to cold, shadowed places.

The results of SOFIA’s observations and the implications have been published in two papers in the journal Nature Astronomy.

So what has SOFIA discovered?

SOFIA, which is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Centre, is a 2.5m telescope, the world’s largest flying observatory that is flown on a Boeing 747-SP aircraft, which flies at an altitude of about 45,000 feet.

The telescope uses the Faint Object infraRed Camera for the SOFIA telescope (FORCAST), with the help of which it was able to pick up the specific wavelength of water molecules on the surface of the Moon. It has detected these water molecules in one of the largest craters on the Moon located in its southern hemisphere, which is visible from the Earth, called Clavius. So far, previous observations have discovered some compounds of hydrogen on the Moon’s surface, but those observations were unable to distinguish between water and hydroxyl.

Data from SOFIA’s observations reveal the presence of water in concentrations of 100-412 parts per million.

The quantity of water found is small. NASA says that the amount of water in the Sahara desert is 100 times more than what SOFIA has detected in the lunar soil.

Researchers suspect that the water found in the crater could have possibly been delivered by tiny meteorite impacts or could have been formed by the interaction of energetic particles ejected from the Sun. When solar winds deliver hydrogen to the lunar surface, the hydrogen could have reacted with oxygen-bearing minerals in the soil to form hydroxyl. This hydroxyl then could be transformed into water.

What is the significance of this finding?

Firstly, the finding is important because it is the first time that water has been found on the sunlit portion of the Moon. This implies that water may be distributed across the lunar surface. Secondly, while the amount of water that has been found is a small amount, it raises questions about how water is created, stored and how it persists on a harsh airless surface such as that of the Moon.

Further, NASA says that learning more about water on the Moon may support the long-term study under its Artemis lunar exploration programme as part of which NASA wants to send the next man and first woman to the Moon by 2024. This is because if scientists are able to use resources present on the Moon, they will have to carry less water with themselves, allowing them to carry more equipment that enables scientific discoveries.

Significantly, water is a key ingredient for life. “…. Almost everywhere we find water on Earth, we find life,” NASA has said previously. Follow Express Explained on Telegram

So how is the water stored on the lunar surface?

Since the Moon does not have a thick atmosphere, scientists note that the water on the sunlit portion should ideally be lost to space. Therefore, SOFIA’s observations are surprising. “something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there,” Casey Honniball, the lead author of one of the studies, said in a NASA statement.

As of now, scientists think that the water on the lunar surface could either be trapped in tiny beadlike structures in the soil that form as a result of the high heat meteorite impacts, or that it could be hidden between grains of lunar soil, which protects it from sunlight and also makes it more accessible than if it were stored in the beadlike structures.

Where was water found on the Moon before?

Honniball said in the statement that before SOFIA’s observations, “We knew there was some kind of hydration”. But it was not clear if any part of this hydration was water molecules, “like we drink every day”.

In 1969, when astronauts returned from the Moon after the first Apollo mission, the conclusion was drawn that the surface was “completely dry”. But over the last 20 years, missions have confirmed the presence of water ice in dark, permanently shadowed craters around the Moon’s poles. Therefore, the discovery of the presence of water in the sunlit areas of the Moon is especially intriguing for scientists.

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