More Sources Of Water Were Found On The Moon
NASA/Moon Trek/USGS/LROScientists believe that the Clavius Crater on the Moon, as seen here by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, contains water.
In another space news discovery around cosmic water, scientists think they’ve found evidence of water on the Moon. The thrilling 2020 discovery revealed a number of ice patches on the Moon’s surface, including in especially cold regions located the furthest from the Sun known as “cold traps.”
Though this isn’t the first time scientists have found traces of water on the Moon, this is one of the most comprehensive studies of its cold traps to date.
Researchers used data from NASA’s airborne telescope SOFIA (the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) to observe the Moon’s surface. There, they discovered patches of water in areas hit by sunlight for the first time. The distinct chemical signature of water was detected near Clavius Crater, one of the Moon’s largest craters, and in other locations.
NASAA diagram showing ice water that could be trapped inside the “cold traps” on the Moon’s surface.
In another study from this year, researchers used data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to study the distribution of cold traps. They found that patches of ice water existed permanently in these dark spots on the Moon, ranging in size from 15,000 square miles to patches as small as a penny.
“The temperatures are so low in cold traps that ice would behave like a rock,” said Paul Hayne, the latter study’s lead author and an assistant professor in the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado. “If water gets in there, it’s not going anywhere for a billion years.”
These ice water spots still need to be verified using observation data from rovers or crewed missions, but the space news has already caused excitement among scientists. The mere possibility that the Moon contains permanent water sources on its surface suggests that there is potential to establish base colonies there.
Both studies were published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
