Moon Reservoir?

  By Alonso Enrique R. Africa

Who knew that our own moon harbors water?

Image courtesy of Spaceanswers.com

40 years ago, Apollo astronauts had nothing. With samples from containers leaked with water, scientists just assumed that it was  just contaminated, little did they know they were wrong. Although that it is theorized that there may just be about 30 ounces of water in the lunar surface of the moon, this is still a breakthrough because it can change the way we think about the moon. Meaning, this can oppose some theories of how we theorize our moon came to be.

A study using satellite data found that water was found inside volcanic deposits, suggesting that the moon may also contain large amounts of indigenous water in its interior. From Apollo 15 and 27 missions to the moon, crystalline formations within volcanic glass beads showed amounts of water similar to basalts of earth. With this, one can say that at least part of the moons mantle may contain a substantial amount of water. With new information about the moon, this can raise new questions that challenge our knowledge that the moon was pulled into earths orbit after a collision. According to it, the moon wouldn’t have water because of the heat due to the impact. This means that we now have a different take on how our moon formed.