The scientific discovery made by the Indian lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 is due to be announced by Nasa today. The discovery, with three studies being published in the journal Science today and a Nasa briefing, could refocus interest in the moon.The appeal of the moon waned after astronauts visited 40 years ago and called it 'magnificent desolation'.
The discovery confirms what two other space probes have found, namely that the chemical signs of water are all over the Moon's surface. It is not enough moisture to foster homegrown life on the moon. But if processed in mass quantities, it might provide resources - drinking water and rocket fuel - for future Moon-dwellers, scientists say. The water comes and goes during the lunar day.
It is not a lot of water. A 2litre bottle of lunar earth would provide only enough water to fill the pipette of a medicine bottle, said University of Maryland astronomer Jessica Sunshine, one of the scientists who discovered the water. Another way to think of it is that a drink of water would require a 730 square metres of Moon earth to produce, said team leader Carle Pieters of Brown University.
'It's sort of just sticking on the surface,' Sunshine said. 'We always think of the Moon as dead, and this is sort of a dynamic process that's going on.'
When Apollo astronauts first returned from the Moon in 1969, they brought back souvenirs in the form of rocks to be used for analysis, and one of the chief questions was if there was water in lunar rocks and soils. However, most of the boxes containing the lunar samples leaked which led scientists to assume traces of water found came from Earth air that had entered the containers.
They assumed that, outside the possibility of ice at the poles, there was no water on the Moon. Now 40 years later, this old assumption has been overturned. A lunar scientist familiar with the findings said: 'This is the most exciting breakthrough in at least a decade. And it will probably change the face of lunar exploration for the next decade.' (Daily Mail)
