Water Officially Found on Earth`s Moon

Just saw pop up in my news feed and thought some of you would find this interesting. I really don`t know what to make of it or how important this will turn out to be but scientist have confirmed that there is indeed water on the moon.

Moon Water Discovery Hints at Mystery Source Deep Underground

Evidence of water spotted on the moon's surface by a sharp-eyed spacecraft likely originated from an unknown source deep in the lunar interior, scientists say. The find — made by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 probe — marks the first detection of such "magmatic water" from lunar orbit and confirms analyses performed recently on moon rocks brought to Earth by Apollo astronauts four decades ago,

I think the major implications could be that

1. Perhaps it's possible that some form of microbial life exists in the interior of the moon?
2. More importantly, it makes the prospect of building a moon base more plausible

That's no moon, it's a space station!

The moon has no clouds and no rain. So whatever kind of water it has can't be suitable for much. You'd have to drill for it. I suspect we will see mining on the moon very soon.

reply to post by csimon


It's megmatic water.

I suggest further reading.

I find this interesting because this would suggest the core of the moon has some degree of fluidity.

reply to post by csimon


I wouldn't count on that staying constant. Who knows what happens outside our atmosphere for sure in terms of how it may change going forward.

I believe trace atmosphere has been detected now though. Nothing to get worked up about or do something really silly like pop a helmet seal to test the air..lol..

It does show changes are constant though and who knows? Maybe the Moon has quite a few surprises left for us. After all, we've spent a whole...what? 5 years of sporadic periods with direct observation/contact to learn anything with Apollo?

Imagine what we'll know about our little friend when we've had 10-15 years of 24/7 constant human presence. They'll do more than putter around in a rover and hop about for science and photo ops.

reply to post by denybedoomed


Oh for the love of....are we really going to make that statement. The moon is actually a space station has been debunked so many times. Come on man! I am sure you are better than that. Let`s talk science here. I actually find this to be really interesting and what it could mean for the future of space travel. A stable supply of water which is not on earth could lead to being able to build a space station on the moon. But to say that the moon itself is a space station...really now.

Don`t worry tho...they come in peace.

The water is not liquid and it is not ice. It is locked within the mineral structure of rocks which originated beneath the crust of the Moon.

"The rocks in the central peak of the crater are of a type called norite that usually crystallizes when magma ascends but gets trapped underground instead of erupting at the surface as lava. Bullialdus crater is not the only location where this rock type is found, but the exposure of these rocks combined with a generally low regional water abundance enabled us to quantify the amount of internal water in these rocks."

www.jhuapl.edu...

The existence of such water was first discovered in samples returned by the Apollo missions. The good news is that the scientists have shown that you don't have to bring rocks back to find out if they contain water molecules.

reply to post by Phage


That`s interesting. Thanks for finding that actually. I was looking at the concept of magmatic water and discussing it with someone on a SNS site after I posted this on a few other sites. It does appear that there could very well be water deep beneath the moon surface. Form that you have found it appears the water on the surface is on a molecular level. And it is not liquid nor ice so it is not ice caps or anything like that. So, as of now, if anyone wanted to try to pull that water form the surface it would mean tearing up the surface of the moon; right?

reply to post by freedomwv

It does appear that there could very well be water deep beneath the moon surface.

Not liquid water, not ice. The water was incorporated with the minerals during the formation of the Moon. Vulcanism (and impacts) brought those minerals to the surface.

So, as of now, if anyone wanted to try to pull that water form the surface it would mean tearing up the surface of the moon; right?

Yeah. And great deal of processing in order to retrieve a pretty small amount of water. But it could be done.

reply to post by freedomwv


Either my sarcasm meter is off line or you didn't get that he was going for the "Star Wars" reference.

reply to post by freedomwv


I couldn't help it, man. Please tell me you get the reference?

reply to post by tjack


Thank you.

I know I contributed little to the actual topic. Honestly, we probably could've figured out there was water on the moon long ago if we had ever gone back . . . wonder why it is that we didn't?

reply to post by denybedoomed


Sorry I missed your reference. I tend to be a bit full on at times.

The reason the US did not return to the moon has to do with the intent of going to the moon in the first place. They wanted to one up the worker`s in the USSR. The USSR was making interesting advancements in satellite tech and space travel ability. Well, you know how American is about `fighting Communism` and all that jazz. So, going to the moon was a way to somehow `prove` which system was better.