NASA discovers water trapped inside moon's sunlit surfaces, says it's more 'widespread'

In a groundbreaking discovery, NASA confirmed on October 31 that its Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astromy (SOFIA) found water trapped inside sunlit surface of Moon. Confirming that re could be more water on moon than previously thought of, NASA said, water is t limited to cold, shadowed lunar places but instead is distributed across entire lunar surface. 

“SOFIA has detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavius Crater, one of largest craters visible from Earth, located in Moon’s sourn hemisphere,” NASA revealed in an official release to press.

It added, that administration’s scientific team had detected some form of hydrogen earlier, but all previous observations have w been confirmed.

Moon has water in concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across lunar surface, NASA said in an anuncement, adding, that roughly makes a 12-ounce bottle of water on Earth. Furr, astronauts published results of findings in journal Nature Astromy. Often confused with hydroxyl (OH) chemical component, water on lunar surface detected in data of previous observations had confused scientists.

“We had indications that H2O – familiar water we kw – might be present on sunlit side of Moon,” said Paul Hertz, director of Astrophysics Division in Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

 “w we kw it is re. This discovery challenges our understanding of lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep exploration,” he added.

Under its Artemis program, administration is w learning more about presence of water on moon to determine its accessibility for use as a resource. Furrmore, NASA I planning to send first woman and next, a man to lunar surface in 2024 to establish a human presence on lunar surface by time this decade ends. "SOFIA’s results build on years of previous research examining presence of water on Moon. When Apollo astronauts first returned from Moon in 1969, it was thought to be completely dry. Orbital and impactor missions over past 20 years, such as NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, confirmed ice in permanently shadowed craters around Moon’s poles,” NASA revealed, elaborating journey of mind-boggling discovery.

[Moon’s Clavius Crater with an illustration depicting water trapped in lunar soil re, along with an im of NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astromy (SOFIA) that found sunlit lunar water. Credits: NASA/Daniel Rutter]

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Earlier, as NASA confirmed, several observatories and craft such as NASA’s Cassini mission and Deep Impact comet mission, Indian Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 mission, and NASA’s ground-based Infrared Telescope Facility, have found presence of hydrogen on lunar surface although it wasn’t established until w by scientists wher it was H2O or OH.

Lead author who published results from her graduate sis work at University of Hawaii at Māa in Holulu said in release that astronauts did, although, speculate that re was some kind of hydration. “But we didn’t kw how much, if any, was actually water molecules – like we drink every day – or something more like drain cleaner,” she added. 

[ Clavius crater on moon as seen by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. SOFIA observatory has detected water ice in shadowed regions of this sunlit lunar location. Credit: NASA/Moon Trek/USGS/LRO]

SOFIA'S discovery of water

NASA's modified Boeing 747SP jetliner with a 106-inch diameter telescope flew at an altitude of up to 45,000 feet and used its Faint Object infraRed CAmera for SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) that picked  wavelength unique to water molecules at 6.1 microns on moon's Clavius Crater. Researcher at NASA’s Goddard Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Honniball said that finding w raises mystery for scientists that what got water trapped on lunar surface. "Something is generating water, and something must be trapping it re," he said.

According to NASA, water on moon was trapped into tiny beadlike structures in soil that formed out of high heat created by micrometeorite impacts. Meanwhile, according to scientists water could have been hidden between grains of lunar soil and sheltered from sunlight all this while, which potentially makes it "more accessible than water trapped in beadlike structures."

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