Water on the moon? New study narrows down the most likely locations
Why it matters: Future lunar explorers could mine ice for drinking water or rocket fuel, significantly impacting long-duration missions.
- An international team of scientists, including Paul Hayne from the University of Colorado Boulder and lead author Oded Aharonson from the Weizmann Institute of Science, published findings in Nature Astronomy suggesting slow, continuous water accumulation on the moon.
- The study rules out a single, large comet impact as the primary source of lunar water, instead pointing to a gradual process over billions of years.
- Paul Hayne notes that the moon's oldest craters hold the most ice, indicating water has been gathering for as long as 3 to 3.5 billion years.
- Observations from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) LAMP instrument previously hinted at ice in permanently shadowed 'cold traps' but lacked an explanation for its uneven distribution, which this new study addresses.
- Water on the moon is considered a 'goldmine' by Hayne, potentially providing drinking water for astronauts and even rocket fuel through hydrogen and oxygen separation.
A new study published in Nature Astronomy suggests that water on the moon accumulated slowly over billions of years, rather than from a single catastrophic event. Researchers, including Paul Hayne from the University of Colorado Boulder, found that the moon's oldest craters contain the most ice, implying continuous water accumulation for up to 3.5 billion years. This discovery helps explain the patchy distribution of ice observed in permanently shadowed lunar craters, a long-standing mystery.
