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Apparently, the moon is not as dry as the scientists thought. This is the message of researchers using NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data to detect water molecules and moisture behavior during a lunar day.
The Moon of the Earth was once thought to be a dry, dusty place, but this image has changed over time. Scientists have discovered the presence of ice near its poles, and more recently we have learned that liquid water does indeed exist in the lunar surface material called regolith. Now, the LRO has revealed that the water present on the surface of the Moon actually moves during the lunar day.
A study on the moisture of the moon to appear in Geophysical Research Letters paints a living image of the water molecules of life on the surface. NASA summarizes the behavior of the water as follows:
Water molecules remain closely related to regolith until surface temperatures peak around midday. Then, the molecules desorb thermally and can bounce back to a place cold enough close enough for the molecule to adhere or invade the extremely tenuous atmosphere or exosphere of the moon, until the temperature drops and the molecules come back. on the surface.
Lyman's alpha mapping project used the LRO readings to detect the presence of water in the regolith, allowing researchers to track the movement of moisture. Data such as these could be particularly useful when planning future missions and possibly even permanent installations on the Moon.
In the future, NASA and other scientific groups have discussed the potential of using the moon as a kind of starting point for deeper missions in space. If water could be collected on the moon, it could prove to be an excellent resource for manned missions further into the solar system.
Source of image: NASA
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