NASA has confirmed the presence of water on the moon for the first time

The American space agency NASA has confirmed for the first time that there is water in the sunlit part of the moon and it is not limited to cold and shadowy areas.

According to a statement released by NASA, the organization’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) made this discovery.

The observatory discovered water molecules (H2O) on the Earth-facing side of the moon, Clavius ​​Carter, located at the moon’s south pole.

According to the report of a foreign news agency, NASA Administrator Jim Bedenstein has released a video on the social networking website Twitter and said in his message that we have discovered water on the moon with the help of the SOFIA telescope. Is.

NEWS: We confirmed water on the sunlit surface of the Moon for the 1st time using @SOFIAtelescope. We don’t know yet if we can use it as a resource, but learning regarding water on the Moon is key for our #Artemis exploration plans. Join the media telecon at https://t.co/vOGoSHt74c pic.twitter.com/7p2QopMhod

— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) October 26, 2020

“We don’t know yet whether we can use it immediately, but this discovery is key to our lunar water projects,” he said.

Some forms of hydrogen had previously been detected on the surface of the Moon, but water and its close chemical cousin hydroxyl (OH) might not be distinguished.

Data from this location reveal that there is 100 to 412 parts per million of water spread across the surface of the full Moon.

The results of the research regarding this discovery were published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division, said: “We had hints of H2O on the moon’s sunward side, but now we know it’s there. It will challenge our understanding and raise the question of whether we can use these resources to explore space’.

According to NASA, if the amount of water found on the surface of the moon is compared to the Great Sahara desert, then there is a hundred times more water in this desert, but despite the small amount, this discovery raises the question that the moon How did water form and persist on hard and airless surfaces?

Needless to say, while water is a valuable resource in deep space and a critical component for life, it remains to be determined whether the water discovered on the Moon is easily accessible for consumption.

But NASA said it is excited regarding the discovery of water because the agency’s Artemis program will send a woman and a man to the lunar surface in 2024 for the first time.

When astronauts first landed on the Moon in 1969, it was believed to be completely dry, but over the past 20 years, various missions have confirmed ice in craters hidden in darkness at the Moon’s polar regions.

During these missions, evidence of surface hydration of the Moon’s bright spots was discovered, but they might not identify whether it was H2O or OH.

“Prior to the SOFIA observations, we knew there was some kind of hydration on the moon, but we didn’t know how much, and whether it was water molecules or something else,” said research team leader Casey Honey Ball.

During the research, a clear view of water vapor at the Earth’s surface was obtained using a 106-inch-diameter telescope with a Boeing 747 SP jetliner.

This amazing discovery was made in the bright side of the Moon with the help of this Fant Object Infrared Camera of the SOFIA Telescope.

“Without an atmosphere, the water in the bright parts of the Moon might have been lost to space, but somehow we might see it, for some reason it formed as water and for some reason it got stuck there,” Casey Ball said.

SOFIA flights will continue to answer these questions to produce the first water resource maps for future human missions to the Moon.

This issue of Nature Astronomy will also publish another study by NASA experts, which shows that this water can be trapped in small shadow regions where the temperature can be as low as minus Celsius and this chain can extend to the full moon. Is.

“Water is a precious resource,” said Jacob Bleacher, chief scientist of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. will be able to make new scientific discoveries.