Small glass balls on the moon formed by meteorite impacts may collectively contain the same amount of water as the ice near the lunar poles, which could be harvested for water by future lunar explorations. may be
Mahesh Anand At the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, his colleagues analyzed samples returned to Earth by China’s Chang’e 5 lunar rover and discovered glass beads known as spheres. .
Using microscopy and spectroscopy, the glass beads were analyzed and found to contain water with the same hydrogen isotopes (atoms of the same element containing different numbers of neutrons) as the charged particles emitted by the sun. got it. Previous research has shown that the globules can contain oxygen, so researchers suspect that hydrogen from the sun may combine with this oxygen to make water.
Since the moon has no atmosphere, meteorites are constantly colliding with it. That is, these beads should be scattered all over the surface. The team estimates that about 300 billion tons of water may be stored inside. This is comparable to the amount of lunar water ice in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon’s poles, which could be much easier to access.
“This is not only interesting scientifically, but it’s also pretty interesting for people planning to actually send missions to the moon and extract resources such as water to enable more sustainable long-term exploration. I think it will work,” says Anand.
These beads also showed evidence of water loss near the edges, even at the Moon’s relatively low temperatures. This is good news for astronauts. “If there is evidence that, at daytime temperatures on the Moon, some of the water is actually diffusing out of these glass beads, then we can actually heat this material to make the water It is not too difficult to expect that some of the will be released,” says Anand.
“The hydrogen content, and therefore the water content, of these glasses is very high,” he said. Sarah Russell At the Natural History Museum in London. “This is a very important study. The amount of spherules produced by collisions is high on the Moon and some other celestial bodies, so spherules may be the primary method of water storage throughout the solar system. .”
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