Written by Amira Shehata
Monday, 03 April 2023 04:00 AM
Scientists have discovered a new, renewable source of water on the Moon for future explorers in lunar samples taken from a Chinese mission. 2020.
According to Phys, the size of the beads ranges from the width of one hair to several hairs; The water content was only a fraction of that, said Hejiu Hui of Nanjing University, who was involved in the study.
The study researcher revealed that since there are billions if not trillions of these impact beads, this could reach large amounts of water, but mining would be difficult.
“Yes, it will take a lot of glass beads,” Hui said in an email, adding: “On the other hand, there are already a lot of beads on the moon.”
These grains can continuously produce water thanks to the constant bombardment of hydrogen in the solar wind. The results, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, are based on 32 randomly selected glass grains of lunar dirt returned from the Chang’e 5 Moon mission. Hui said it will be Study more samples.
More studies are needed to determine if this is possible, and if so, whether the water would be safe to drink.
Previous studies have found water in glass beads formed by lunar volcanism, based on samples returned by Apollo astronauts on the lunar surface more than half a century ago. These could also provide water not only for use by future crews, but for rocket fuel.