Samples from the Moon's Oceanus Procellarum may be able to help determine the source of lunar water:
China's lunar lander Chang'E-5 delivered the first real-time, on-site definitive confirmation of water signal in the basalt's rocks and soil via on-board spectral analysis in 2020. The finding was validated through laboratory analysis of samples the lander returned in 2021. Now, the Chang'E-5 team has determined where the water came from.
[...] Chang'E-5 did not observe lunar rivers or springs; rather the lander identified, on average, 30 hydroxyl parts per million in rocks and soil on the Moon's surface. The molecules, made of one oxygen and one hydrogen atom, are the main ingredient of water, as well as the most common result of water molecules chemically reacting with other matter. Despite representing what Li called the "weak end of lunar hydration features," hydroxyl is to water what smoke is to fire: evidence.
[...] "This excess hydroxyl is indigenous, demonstrating the presence of lunar-originated internal water in the Chang'E-5 lunar samples, and that water played an important role in the formation and crystallization of the late lunar basaltic magma," Li said, referring to the composition of Chang'E-5 landing site in the mare basalt of Oceanus Procellarum. "By investigating lunar water and its source, we are learning more about the formation and evolution of not just the Moon itself, but also the solar system. In addition, lunar water is expected to provide support for future human lunar in-situ resources."
Journal Reference:
Liu, Jianjun, Liu, Bin, Ren, Xin, et al. Evidence of water on the lunar surface from Chang'E-5 in-situ spectra and returned samples [open], Nat Commun, 13, 2022. (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30807-5)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by coolgopher on Thursday June 16 2022, @08:42AM (1 child)
While I don't have anything to add to the topic, I just want to let the editors know that I found this story interesting and not deserving of it's "0 comments" state :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @08:38PM
I would like to inject a little racism to get the party started. There's virtually no point China doing any scientific research because it's 99.9% certain to involve fraud or plagiarism, so anything "discovered" will need to be done again properly to see if it's real or more Chinese bullshit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @01:45PM (1 child)
"Chang'E-5 did not observe lunar rivers or springs"
Well no shit, it's the MOON! Did that really need to be mentioned? Did the author actually believe there is a chance in hell of finding a flowing river of water in a vacuum on an object where suface temperature ranges from 200C to -200?. Or did the author realize that there are so much more dump people nowadays who will believe there are rivers on the moon?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @04:14PM
To be fair, saying that they discovered evidence of water on the Moon can suggest that the rover came across something like a frozen patch of ice or something. You're not going to be able to put the detection of hydroxyls and what that means about native water all in the headline.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @05:35PM
At 30ppm you'd need to mine a lot of rock to get a usable amount of water. Fortunately lunar water is highly recyclable if you don't waste it making rocket fuel.