Chinese rover samples reveal that moon rocks contain traces of water
A new study has confirmed that moon rocks collected by China's Chang'e-5 lander contain water, but not as much as scientists expected.
Scientists found that levels of water (H20) in lunar soil are approximately 28.5 parts per million, which is relatively dry, even by lunar standards.
But the sample revealed that the mineral apatite (natural calcium phosphate) contains an aqueous compound of 179 parts per million. This confirms previous results from ground-based telescopes, satellite observations in orbit and local data from Chang'e-5 itself.
The Chinese probe reached the moon on December 1, 2020, as part of a mission to return rock and soil samples to Earth, which it achieved two weeks later on December 16 of that year.
While on the lunar surface, Chang'e-5 used his onboard instruments to make a number of scientific measurements, including the spectral reflection of moon rocks.
This is a process in which light reflected from rocks can indicate their chemical composition, including levels of molecules such as oxygen and hydrogen.
An analysis by a separate Chinese team of scientists, published earlier this year, showed that in some types of rocks, at mid-latitude on the Moon, water molecules were present at about 120 ppm, and others at 180 ppm.
Numerous orbital observations and sample measurements completed over the past decade have revealed the presence of water, either hydroxyl or water (H20) in the moon rocks.
However, no measurements have been made on the surface of the moon itself, to determine if the particles are actually present in the rocks up close.
Scientists hope that future astronauts will be able to extract molecular oxygen and hydrogen, to produce water and pure oxygen.
In the new study, a team of scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences analyzed samples of the Chang'e-5 lander and found signs of water bound in its metallic structure.
The amount of water observed was "kind of on the low side of what we were expecting before the mission," said Parvathi Prem of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, who was not involved in the research.
It is believed that this could be either because the Chang'e-5 probe took samples at a warm time of the day, or because the lunar module landed in an area protected from the solar wind by the Earth's magnetic field.
The wind contains hydrogen, which can become water when it meets oxygen atoms on the moon's surface.
The new study is published in the journal Nature Communications.
Source: Daily Mail
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