? Is there really water on the moon? Is it drinkable
One of the most important discoveries that have been addressed in recent years is the geological discovery of the moon. Through which the moon's rocky and mineral structure was identified, water was discovered on the moon's surface, and a news story that stirred scientific journals was addressed about the possibility of astronauts drinking moon water.
Followed by this news, another news about the possibility of the moon withdrawing the Earth's water over the past billions of years, how true is this news? To understand it, we have to study the terrestrial and lunar rock and mineral structure, which is very similar to the structure of the Earth.
This similarity leads to the conclusion of the unity of the cosmic matter or the cosmic dust from which the universe was woven and formed according to the most well-heard and most widely accepted theories, the Big Bang theory, from which the Earth was created and the Moon, successively, formed. Since the moon is a satellite of the earth, it is logical that its formation came after the formation and stability of the earth; The similarity between both terrestrial and lunar materials shows that they both contain iron and nickel to a large extent.
From the above, an important question may come to our minds, which is, is there water on the moon? And if found, is it fit for drinking?!
Our Earth Moon
The Earth's moon is the fifth largest moon in the solar system compared to the size of the Earth. Its diameter is a quarter of the Earth's diameter. Its mass is 1/81 of the Earth's mass. The Earth's moon is the second largest in terms of density after Io, which is the inner moon of the four satellites of Jupiter.
The Moon revolves around the Earth in a regular motion in an elliptical orbit, as it always displays the same face in relation to the viewer of the planet Earth. The Moon is the brightest object on the planet. The moon is the second brightest star in the solar system after the sun.
Also read: A university professor wants to blow up the moon with a nuclear bomb to improve the weather on Earth
Moon soil and rocks
Moon soil consists mainly of a group of hard rocks and some brittle rocks that vary in density, as mentioned earlier; The moon's soil consists of basalt rocks, which have a density of about (3.31 g/cm3), and another group of anorthosite rocks that have a density of about (2.8 g/cm3). Therefore, the anorthosite rocks, which are the least dense, float above the basalt rocks, which are the highest density.
Moon soil is another group of loose brittle rocks. They are the following:
regular glassware
Organized glazes are the most important components of lunar rocky soils. They are regular shapes of circles, lunar planes, drops, and more. It consists of different mineral compositions that vary in colors between green, red, brown and yellow. Their sizes range from 1 mm to 1 cm.
glass collectors
It consists of glass grains of cristobalite, plagioclase and some other rocky grains, which are connected to each other by thin lines that are easy to break.
Albreccia
This type of rock is prevalent in the lunar rocks of the lunar soil that were pulled up by the Apollo-11 flight. This type contains crumbs of rock and breccia of igneous origin. The grains of this rock range from unaccomplished rock particles to impacted rock particles. And there are no signs of a transformation or re-crystallization. It consists mainly of brown glass. And be fragile when hammering several simple ways.
Albreccia mutant
They are found in lunar places that were collided by meteorites. It can be distinguished from ordinary lunar breccia. But in modern lunar places only some lunar breccia are found and not metamorphic lunar breccia rocks, as these modern lunar regions have not been impacted by meteorites yet.
There are some other types of rocks in the lunar soil, such as fine rocks, which consist of fine and dusty grains as a result of continuous grinding as a result of the impact of meteorites.
The lunar soil also contains the rocks of ordinary lunar breccia and metamorphic lunar breccia in a greater proportion than it contains igneous rocks such as lunar basalt.
Lunar soil is characterized by the presence of radioactive elements in abundance, unlike the terrestrial elements, due to the exposure of the moon to a large number of cosmic rays. The presence of radioactive elements such as sodium (the isotope 22), cobalt (the isotope 56) and chromium (the isotope 60) have been proven. It was found that the ratio of potassium to uranium in lunar soil rocks is (2400: 3100), i.e. in a ratio of (3.3: 3.8).
Water on the moon
The matter of the presence of water on the surface of the moon was extremely impossible, and it was from the sheer imagination of an author that he wove a science fiction story, and some ancient scientific studies have shown to some extent that there are some traces of water, even in the large dark craters that appear at the poles of the moon, and this is on Less appreciate.
A study published in November 2020 in the journal Nature Astronomy sheds light on how there is water on the moon, and in this topic, we will talk about something more in detail about these two studies, this is very important because it makes sense and is obvious that wherever there is water there is life.
Where did the water on the moon form?
At the end of 2018, a research team led by Casey Honibal extracted some data from infrared instruments aboard the Sophia Observatory, which was studying some areas of the moon's surface illuminated by sunlight.
The study focused on some areas and not others, which were believed to contain water, including areas located at the southern high latitudes near the crater "Clavius". There were strong infrared emissions at a wavelength of six micrometers from the crater and the surrounding area, and after exposure to the sun's heat, something on the moon's surface re-emit the absorbed radiation, just as it does with ordinary molecular water (H2O).
One of the evidences for the above is that, with modern science, no other substance has been discovered yet other than water that emits a single spectral feature at this aforementioned wavelength. The moon contains some igneous rocks.
The previous study indicates that water is stored between the aforementioned igneous rock grains or trapped between microscopic grains of rock dust on the Moon.
Another explanation is that the water may have been from oxygen and hydrogen that were liberated from lunar rocks as a result of the collision between meteorites and the moon's surface.
The discovery of a spectral feature at a wavelength of six micrometers was not the first and unique of its kind. Rather, it was done by another study, conducted by the astronomers JW Salisbury and JR Hunt. The aforementioned studied on board a balloon the same spectral feature, but they did not determine that the wave emission At six micrometers it is an emission that indicates water, but perhaps these two scientists did not realize at the time that they had made a great scientific discovery that the presence of water on the surface of the moon .
Is water on the moon safe to drink and what is the importance of discovering it?
In October 2020, NASA revealed that there is water on the surface of the moon, as its discovery resulted in the presence of small pockets of water on the surface of the moon, and reported in its press conference that this water may be enough to establish a colony on the surface of the moon, and water can be accessed on the lunar part illuminated by light. the sun.
And in a report published in the British “Daily Mail” that the amount of water is enough to establish a human colony already, as the volume of water in cold traps on the moon’s surface is about 40,000 km of water, and stated that it is possible that astronauts in the future convert it into oxygen that is used as fuel for spacecraft, It can also be desalinated from the majesty of devices coupled with spacecraft to turn it into drinking water, and this indicates that the presence of human colonies on the surface of the moon soon is not a mere fantasy, but rather a reality that is being worked on.
The fact that the moon pulled the waters of the Earth through the years
Since NASA discovered water on the surface of the moon, and there are several beliefs or rumors that water was formed on the surface of the moon thanks to the planet Earth, where it is believed that the moon draws water from the surface of the earth by pulling oxygen and hydrogen ions from the earth’s atmosphere when the moon passes in an area Earth's magnetosphere tail.
The moon passes through the aforementioned region, during five days of each lunar month, and during these five days, these solar winds push some of the magnetosphere, breaking the Earth’s magnetic field lines, and this break in the lines is accompanied by the transfer of hydrogen and oxygen ions until this fracture is compensated in the magnetosphere lines Thus, because there is no magnetic field surrounding the moon, these ions form permafrost thanks to some geological processes, and the frost may then rush into the interior of the moon and form lunar water in its known liquid form.
Read also: In response to the university professor … this is what would happen if we blew up the moon with a nuclear bomb!
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