Do you want to make water on the moon? The solar wind can help.

As human beings, we rely on waterand it will not be different during long-term space exploration – that's why scientists are studying how and where water is formed elsewhere in the solar system.

A new study suggests that, to manufacture the ingredients of water, the moon pulls a whiplash from the constant barrage of charged plasma particles dripping from the sun, called the solar wind.

"We believe that water is this special and magical compound," said William M. Farrell, a plasma physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. said in a statement. "But here's what's amazing: every rock has the potential to produce water, especially after being irradiated by the solar wind."

Farrell and his co-authors have created a new simulation of the chemical reactions that take place at the surface of the moon. This computer simulation suggested that the solar wind breaks up oxygen-rich compounds in the lunar soil.

Then, positively charged protons in the solar wind combine with lunar electrons to create hydrogen atoms. These atoms then meet with available oxygen atoms in a range of different molecules found on the moon to create hydroxylwhich is just a hydrogen atom running out of water.

The team was able to combine this chemistry and the amount of hydroxyl in the lunar crust with hydrogen measurements in the vaporous atmosphere of the moon and in the solar wind itself to see how the three substances interact.

This makes the solar wind a potentially valuable resource – an unusual statement for a phenomenon generally considered a danger of death. On Earth, we are protected from the negative impacts of this wind by the thick atmosphere of the planet and robust magnetic fieldbut on the moon, most of the solar wind hits the surface.

While research to date has focused only on the moon, scientists believe that a similar process takes place wherever the rock meets the solar wind. If this turns out to be the case, it could have real implications for human and robotic exploration.

"The whole process is like a chemical plant," Farrell said.

The research is described in a document published in December in the journal JGR Planets.

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