China’s Chang’e 5 lunar lander has found the first-ever on-site evidence of water on the surface of the moon, confirming previous scientific predictions that water does really exist on the body.
The study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances revealed that the lunar soil at the landing site contains less than 120 parts-per-million (ppm) water or 120 grams water per ton, and a light, vesicular rock carries 180 ppm, which are much drier than that on Earth.
A device on-board the lunar lander measured the spectral reflectance of the regolith and the rock and detected water on the spot for the first time.
The Chinese mission, Chang’E-5 found traces of water in the soil where it landed, which researchers believe was because of gases flowing off the sun forming water through the solar wind. When solar wind made contact with the oxygen on the moon’s soil and rocks, it formed water. Rock picked up from the same location contained a higher concentration of water than the soil around it.
Matt Siegler, a senior scientist for the Planetary Science Institute, believes that research shows that the moon may contain more water than expected.
Previously, however, missions to space had put scientists under the false assumption that the moon was bone dry, yet over the years signs of hydration on the sunlit surface have been found but not confirmed until recently.
In the last two decades, scientists from NASA had examined Apollo moon samples in 2008 and found water molecules in glass beads. A month before the Chinese made their mission to the moon, NASA announced that they could confirm that the water on the moon was certainly in a sunny part of the celestial body.
They used a Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) to pick up confirmed wavelength signals of water molecules which revealed that water is widespread on the moon and not just at the poles.
The Chang’E-5 was the first mission to the moon that collected and returned materials since Soviet Union’s Luna 24 in 1976. NASA last extracted moon rock samples in 1972, almost 50 years ago.
