NASA Will Announce an 'Exciting New Discovery About The Moon' on Monday, page 3

originally posted by: LookingAtMars
ETA - Water.

What kind of water if it's neither liquid nor solid? Does this make sense?

www.usatoday.com...

The lead researcher, Casey Honniball, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said at a news conference that she wanted to make it clear the SOFIA study had not found puddles on the moon. Rather, the identified hydrogen and oxygen molecules are so far apart they are neither in liquid or solid form, she said.

"the identified hydrogen and oxygen molecules are so far apart they are neither in liquid or solid form" makes the water sound not very accessible, so I looked at the actual paper abstract which says it the water could be stored in "glasses", which doesn't mean drinking glasses obviously but think of window pane type of glass, which would make it hard to get the water out, that's why it's still there.

Molecular water detected on the sunlit Moon

we suggest that a majority of the water we detect must be stored within glasses or in voids between grains sheltered from the harsh lunar environment, allowing the water to remain on the lunar surface.

Since the sunlit lunar surface can reach 260 degrees Fahrenheit (127 degrees Celsius), that's above water's boiling point even at Earth's atmospheric pressure. The vacuum on the moon is probably better than the vacuum in this vacuum chamber where you can see cold water boiling at around 22 degrees:

Boiling cold water In a Vacuum Chamber

I'm sure the researchers are well aware of the "harsh lunar environment" in sunlight, so they know there much be some good reasons why the water hasn't evaporated away, and for similar reasons the water may be difficult for astronauts to access, especially if it's locked up in glasses.

edit on 20201026 by Arbitrageur because: clarification