NASA announced that there is water on the Moon

NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed the presence of water on the sunlit side of the Moon for the first time. This discovery suggests that water may be distributed across the Moon’s surface and is not limited to cold, shadowed areas.

SOFIA detected water molecules (H₂O) in the Clavius Crater, located in the Moon’s southern hemisphere, one of the largest craters visible from Earth. Previous observations of the Moon’s surface had detected some form of hydrogen but were unable to distinguish between water and its close chemical relative, hydroxyl (OH). Data from this location reveal water at a concentration of 100–412 parts per million on the Moon’s surface (this amount is roughly equivalent to 340 grams of water per cubic meter of soil). The results are published in the latest issue of *Nature Astronomy*.

'There were indications that water might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon,' said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA's headquarters in Washington. 'Now we know it's there.' This discovery challenges our understanding of the Moon’s surface and raises interesting questions about resources relevant to space exploration.

By comparison, Earth’s deserts contain a hundred times as much water as SOFIA detected in the Moon’s soil. Despite the small amount, however, the discovery raises new questions about how water forms and persists on the harsh, airless surface of the Moon.

Water is a valuable resource in deep space and a key component of life. The accessibility of the water found by SOFIA and the possibility of using it as a resource still need to be investigated. As part of NASA’s Artemis program, the agency is doing everything it can to learn everything there is to know about the presence of water on the Moon before sending the first woman and the next man to the Moon’s surface in 2024 and establishing a sustainable human presence there toward the end of this decade.

SOFIA’s findings were preceded by years of previous research investigating the presence of water on the Moon. When the Apollo astronauts first returned from the Moon in 1969, they believed it to be completely dry. Missions over the past 20 years, such as NASA’s lunar crater observations and satellite sensing, have confirmed the presence of ice in permanently shadowed craters around the Moon’s poles

Source:
nasa