Everything we know about the discovery of water ‘reservoirs’ on the Moon

For years, humanity has been searching for other sources of water in the Universe. Although ¾ of our planet’s territory is covered by water, it is not possible to consume all of it, since seawater, for example, is not drinkable.

With this in mind, with the development of space investigations, in addition to the search for a possible habitable planet, there is also the search for water.

Even though we know that not all planets are capable of supporting life, many still have large reservoirs of water, or at least some amount stored.

And, surprisingly, many moons also have water reservoirs, including ours!

New ‘reservoir’ of water discovered on the Moon

The presence of water on the Moon is not new information, since other scientists had already noticed that there is water on the satellite. Logically, this does not concern oceans or lakes like those that exist on Earth, but rather consist of reservoirs of frozen water on the lunar surface.

Furthermore, there are two “sources” of water on the Moon, and one of them is comets. As we know, comets are basically balls of dust and ice. When they collide with the lunar surface, the impact generated is capable of melting the ice present in the comet, which ends up penetrating the satellite’s surface.

Then there are the solar winds. And now many of you may be wondering: do the solar winds carry water? Well, the answer is yes and no. What happens is that the solar winds have several hydrogen molecules emitted from the solar surface.

These molecules, when coming into contact with interplanetary dust (a kind of trail of asteroids and comets), end up encountering other molecules present in the dust, such as silicates and oxygen.

According to what we have learned, H2O is the chemical composition of water, so when hydrogen molecules from the solar wind come into contact with oxygen molecules from solar dust, tiny water molecules form. These molecules end up on moons, asteroids, and even on Earth, leaving tiny amounts of water behind.

Recently, in a study published in the journal Natureit was discovered that the “drops” of glass created on the Moon through asteroid and comet impacts end up preserving these water molecules within themselves.

This discovery was made by a team of Chinese scientists led by Professor Sen Hu and carried out using the Chang’e probe. The professor’s statement reads as follows:

“These findings indicate that impact glasses on the surface of the Moon and other airless bodies in the solar system are capable of storing water derived from the solar wind and releasing it into space.”