Data stored on the Moon, the proposal of a startup 1:13
(CNN) --
Ancient volcanic eruptions on the moon could provide an unexpected resource for future lunar explorers: water.
Between 2,000 and 4,000 million years ago, the Moon was a volcanic focus.
Tens of thousands of volcanoes erupted on the surface, releasing hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of lava onto the lunar surface.
This activity created huge lava rivers and lakes similar to those in present-day Hawaii, but on a much larger scale.
"They are much larger than all the eruptions on Earth," Paul Hayne, an assistant professor in the department of astrophysical and planetary sciences and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said in a statement.
Hayne is a co-author of a new study published this month in The Planetary Science Journal about possible sources of water on the Moon.
When these lunar volcanoes erupted, they also likely released giant clouds of carbon monoxide and water vapor.
These clouds drifted and could have created thin, temporary atmospheres.
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But it's also possible that water vapor settled on the lunar surface and formed ice caps that might have existed in craters at today's lunar poles.
These ice sheets could be tens to hundreds of meters thick.
"We envisioned it as frost on the Moon that built up over time," says lead author Andrew Wilcoski, a doctoral student in the department of astrophysical and planetary sciences and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of California. in Boulder, in a statement.
This rendering shows what frost may have formed on the Moon's surface billions of years ago.
If humans had been alive on Earth when this occurred, a shadow of frost might have been visible on the border between night and day on the lunar surface, the researchers said.
As NASA's Artemis mission prepares to return humans to the Moon and land on the lunar south pole for the first time later this decade, that ice could provide drinking water and serve as a resource for rocket fuel. Hayne said.
NASA tests the Artemis I lunar rocket before launch
"It is possible that there are large ice sheets 5 or 10 meters below the surface," he said.
Previous research has supported the idea that the Moon may contain more water than previously believed.
Hayne and his colleagues estimated in a 2020 study that almost 15,540 square kilometers of the lunar north and south poles could retain ice.
The study was included in a NASA announcement that year about the discovery of water on the Moon.
NASA will search for water on the surface and subsurface of the Moon
Scientists have been trying to figure out where the water originated, leading researchers to the volcano theory.
They imagined that clouds of water vapor formed like frost on the lunar surface, similar to how it forms on Earth after a cold night.
Wilcoski and Hayne collaborated with Margaret Landis, a research associate at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of California, Boulder, to model what the Moon was like a few billion years ago.
Scientists believe that Schroeter's Valley (also called Schröter's Valley) was created by lava released by volcanic eruptions on the lunar surface.
At that time, the Moon experienced a volcanic eruption approximately every 22,000 years.
The team calculated that 41% of the water vapor released during the eruptions could form ice on the lunar surface.
According to the study, this represents about 8.2 quadrillion kilograms of volcanic water, more water than the current level of Lake Michigan, which would become lunar ice.
The thick polar caps might even once have been visible from Earth.
"Atmospheres escaped for about 1,000 years, so there was plenty of time for ice to form," Wilcoski said.
Although most of that ice may still exist on the Moon today, it is likely buried under several meters of lunar regolith -- or dust --.
"We have to drill down and look for it," Wilcoski said.
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