The Earth’s Moon may be hiding significant amounts of water under its surface.
For decades, NASA scientists have known that water would be key to any colonies away from Earth. This applies to colonies either on the planet Mars or on the Moon. Now, an amazing new piece of research has found that the moon may be harboring significant amounts of water underneath its surface. A team from Brown University conducted a study that posits that there may be an entirely wet interior to the Earth’s companion satellite.
Significant Amounts of Water from Ancient Volcanoes
The study took a look at the eruption patterns from volcanoes that have been dormant for eons. Those models showed evidence of water coming out with volcanic eruptions. Since it was ejected from underneath the surface of the moon, that leads scientists to believe that the water came from beneath the crust as well.
One of the most significant finds is that the data is consistent across all the volcanoes studied. That means the water is almost certainly distributed throughout the interior of the moon. It is also likely very abundant.
“Our work shows that nearly all of the large pyroclastic deposits also contain water,” said the study’s lead author Ralph Milliken. “So this seems to be a common characteristic of magmas that come from the deep lunar interior. That is, most of the mantle of the Moon may be wet.”
The findings do not settle the matter over water on the Moon. This has been raging on for almost a decade since patterns were found indicative of water in volcanic beads brought back by Apollo 15. The belief is that these beads may be indicative of the entire mantle of the natural satellite. They also further indicate that this interior water is widespread.
However, this discovery does add more to the greater pile of evidence. Eventually, either robotic or manned missions may be the only solution. They may help tell if there are, in fact, significant amounts of water on the Erth’s natural satellite.
Image Source: Wikimedia
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