A team of scientists from China discovered a huge reserve of water on the moon: more than
270,000 million tons
.
According to the revealing report of the Chang'e 5 (CE5) probe, new traces of
water in impact crystals
were found in lunar soil, according to a study published in the specialized journal
Natura Geoscience.
The group led by Professor Sen Hu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that these crystals are likely a
new reservoir of water on the Moon
, recording the inflow and outflow of water derived from solar winds and acting as buffers for the cycle. of lunar surface water.
The surface water from this satellite awakens the interest of the scientific community due to its potential to be used "in situ" by future space exploration missions.
Of course, its extraction is almost ruled out due to the high cost that this would imply.
The Chinese landed for the first time with the Chenge's 5 sona in December 2020. Photo: AFP
After many lunar missions confirmed the presence of structural water or in the form of ice on the Moon, there is hardly any doubt that the star contains the element on its surface, although to a much lesser extent than Earth.
Scientists believe that there must be
water reserves that remain to be identified
and that have the capacity to buffer the lunar surface water cycle.
That is, they are capable of retaining them on the satellite without escaping into space.
One of the members of the Chinese team proposed that these impact crystals, a ubiquitous presence in the lunar soil, could be a candidate for the investigation of these "
unidentified water layers or reserves
".
The crystals collected by the Chang'e 5 mission - which landed on the moon in December 2020 to collect lunar samples for two days before returning to Earth - have "homogeneous chemical compositions and smooth surfaces," they published.
The robotic probe sending the first images of the moon to China.
Photo: Xinhua
"They are characterized by their abundance of water, and their composition reflects that it probably comes from solar winds," they argue.
These impact crystals "acted like a sponge to dampen the lunar surface water cycle," according to the researchers' conclusions.
"These findings indicate that impact crystals on the surface of the Moon and other airless bodies in the Solar System are capable of storing water derived from solar winds and releasing it into space," Professor Hu said.
The Chinese academy's study was done in cooperation with Nanjing University, the Open University, the Natural History Museum, the University of Manchester and the University of Science and Technology of China.
With information from EFE