Moon may have more water than previously thought, NASA announces

Summer Lin
·2 min read

There might be more water on the moon than scientists previously believed, which could be used as a resource, NASA announced at anews conference Monday.

Researchers used NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy telescope, called SOFIA, and the agency’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to observe the moon and found water on the sunlit surface for the first time.

In a study published in Nature Astronomy, SOFIA was used to confirm H20 or molecular water in one of the moon’s large craters in the southern hemisphere.

“We had indications that H2O — the familiar water we know — might be present on the sunlit side of the moon,” said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division, according to a news release. “Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.”

While the water found on the moon wasn’t a lot —the Sahara desert has 100 times the water than what was detected — NASA intends try to see how accessible the water is and whether or not it can be used as a resource.

“SOFIA’s follow-up flights will look for water in additional sunlit locations and during different lunar phases to learn more about how the water is produced, stored, and moved across the moon,” NASA wrote.

NASA’s Artemis program, which plans to send the first woman and next man to the moon by 2024, could also reveal more information about water on the moon.

In another study, researchers studied cold traps in shadowed areas of the moon using the lunar orbiter. They discovered that hidden water could also be located in ice patches.

“If you can imagine standing on the surface of the moon near one of its poles, you would see shadows all over the place,” said Paul Hayne, assistant professor in the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder and one of the authors of the study. “Many of those tiny shadows could be full of ice.”