Context:
- Scientists have found a mineral in a lunar meteorite that points to the presence of abundant hidden reserves of water ice under the surface of the Moon, which could be potentially useful for future human exploration.
- A team from the Tohoku University in Japan found the mineral, called moganite, in a lunar meteorite discovered in a desert in northwest Africa.
About Moganite:
- Moganite, a crystal of silicon dioxide, is known to form on Earth in specific circumstances in sedimentary settings from alkaline fluids.
- It has never before been detected in samples of lunar rock.
- In a moganite, there is less water, because moganite forms from the evaporation of water. That’s the case on the surface of the Moon. But in the subsurface, much water remains as ice, because it’s protected from the sunlight.
Procellarum Terrane
- Researchers believe the mineral formed on the surface of the Moon in the area called Procellarum Terrane, as water originally present in lunar dirt evaporated due to exposure to strong sunlight. “For the first time, they can prove that there is water ice in the lunar material.
Water on the moon
- Scientists already knew that there is water on the moon. For example, Nasa’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite detected a shadowed crater near the Moon’s south pole.
- India’s probe Chandrayaan-1 recorded evidence of water in the thin atmosphere above the Moon’s surface. However, there has been no evidence so far of the presence of water in the subsurface at mid and lower latitudes, according to Kayama.
- The researchers estimate that the water content in the lunar soil under the surface could be up to 0.6%. If that is right, future Moon explorer could theoretically extract about 1.6 gallons of water per 36 cubic feet of lunar rock
Source:Livemint