![]() Honniball and her colleagues detected the water molecules in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth, located in the moon’s sunny southern hemisphere. ![]() That suggested water may be locked inside grains of lunar grit, just like liquid in a thermos bottle, the scientists said.ĭr. Using an infrared telescope aboard a NASA jet flying over Nevada, the researchers spotted the distinctive spectral wavelength emitted by water molecules on the sun-bleached surface of the moon. The water molecules also might have been created in a series of chemical reactions between hydrogen borne on the solar wind and oxygen-bearing minerals, the scientists said. A steady rain of micrometeorites over millions of years may have deposited the water on the lunar surface in a pitter-patter of tiny but violent impacts. ![]() In a news briefing Monday, the agency scientists offered two theories. “So, finding water that is easier to reach is really important to us.” “We know there’s water on the Moon, but we don’t know exactly how accessible lunar water is for our future explorers,” said Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. But space agency planners preparing for crewed missions to the moon have expected that astronauts will have to bring their own water with them to survive because such caches of lunar ice may be too inaccessible or hazardous to mine. Since 2008, scientists have known that ice deposits existed in the deep freeze of lunar polar craters. “The discovery raises new questions about how water is created and how it can persist in the harsh airless conditions of the sunlit lunar surface,” said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s astrophysics division. ![]()
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