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(Yet) more water on moon than thought

According to a new study of the lunar mantle, similar water could have concentrations like the earth’s mantle and the would missions, good news for future moon!

Possible water in the lunar mantle are appearing here colored

Long as the moon was considered a very dry celestial bodies, which could be rebutted by new evidence once and for all. Researchers evaluated data collected by the Indian moon probe “Chandrayann-1” to 2009. Therefore, a similar water concentration in the mantle of the earth is in the moon’s mantle. The latter is located under the earth’s crust and may contain a lot of water as all the oceans.

According to the Ralph Milliken and Shuai Li in the professional journal “Nature Geoscience” published study so far, as probably applicable to not vote in the history of the moon. Thus, the moon had been separated by a collision with a Mars large celestial body from the young earth. Such a collision would produce such a heat that the water must evaporate on the moon.

The surface of the moon for water, “scanned”

Milliken and Li were able to search with an elaborate analysis of large parts of the moon’s surface to water. Their results showed that water containing glass beads of the Apollo lunar samples are no local features to represent and “that ubiquitous presence of water in pyroclastic deposits (a mixture of solids and gases, in volcanic activity, Anm. d. Red.) further evidence that the lunar mantle is an important reservoir,” the authors write in their study.

Already in 2008, investigations of lunar rock had the last Apollo-Mission samples proved the existence of water in volcanic glass beads. Was discovered in 2009 also by targeted felling of an old rocket stage on the moon ice cream.

Where does the water come from?

How did the moon’s water comes from is still a mystery. “The more evidence for water on the moon suggests that the water has survived either but somehow, or that it was brought to the collision of an asteroid or comet before the moon is completely frozen,” explained Li. The water deposits on the moon could be of practical Use for the exploration of the moon, the two researchers. After all, the volcano included of beads in the “Apollo”samples of 0.5 parts per thousand water and could potentially extract. “Anything that saves future Moon explorers, to bring along amounts of water from your home is a big step forward,” says Li.

js/hf (dpa)


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