Chinese scientists have identified traces of water on the Moon, some of which are of lunar origin, state television CGTN reported today.
The experts relied on information gathered from lunar samples and images captured by the Chang’e 5 mission, and published their findings in the scientific journal Nature Communications.
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Scientists were able to identify at least two sources of origin: water brought by the solar winds and another autochthonous one.
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The region where the Chang’e 5 mission landed contained minerals that had indigenous traces of hydroxyl, which, made up of one atom of hydrogen and one of oxygen, is the main ingredient in water.
Minerals collected by the Chang’e 5 mission have fewer crystal remains, which experts associate with solar winds, one of the possible sources of water on the Moon’s surface.
The presence of crystals in these new samples is a third smaller than that recorded in the evidence collected by the US Apollo 11 mission.
One of the purposes of the Chang’e 5 mission was precisely to investigate the existence of lunar water, a key element in understanding the formation and evolution of Earth’s natural satellite.
The Chang’e program began with the launch of a first probe in 2007.
In recent years, Beijing has invested heavily in its space program and has achieved milestones such as the successful landing of a probe on the far side of the Moon in January 2019, an achievement that no country has ever achieved.
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