The Moon would be rich in water

photo AFP

AFP

Monday, 24 July, 2017 11:31

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Monday, 24 July, 2017 11:31

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The future explorers will they be able to quench their thirst with the water of the moon ? According to research published Monday in the journal Nature geoscience, the depths of the star would be surprisingly rich in water.

“We have found the signature of water throughout the depths of the Moon using satellite data”, explains to the AFP Shuai Li of Brown university in Providence in the United States and co-author of the study.

For a long time, we perceived the Moon as a star, arid, of”a magnificent desolation” or “completely dry”.

But the presence of water on the planet is now more debate. Already in 2008, researchers had found water molecules in the interior of magma brought back by Apollo astronauts.

“It remained to be seen if these samples reflect the general conditions of the bowels of the Moon, or accounted for, rather, are regions rich in water exceptional, abnormal in a coat “dry”,” notes Ralph Milliken, also of Brown university, in Providence, and co-author of the study.

Using satellite data, the two researchers have highlighted that volcanic deposits contained quantities of exceptionally high water, coming from the depths of the moon.

“These deposits are rich in water are distributed over the surface, which proves that the water found in samples of Apollo is not a unique case,” says Ralph Milliken.

The hypothesis most widely prevalent on the origin of the formation of the Moon and that of a huge collision between Earth and a body the size of Mars, soon after the formation of the solar system.

This discovery raises a question: how the hydrogen needed for the formation of water was able to survive the extreme temperatures induced by the impact?

According to the study, the deposits contain little water (less than 0.05%), but they are huge, reaching up to 1000 km2. The star would therefore be finally “surprisingly rich in water”, according to the researchers.

A discovery that could have a practical application in the future: “the water could be used as a resource in situ in a future exploration”, according to Shuai Li.