Chinese scientists examining lunar regolith samples collected by the Chang’e 5 mission have made an exciting discovery. He pointed it out Wall Street Journal.
Specifically, they found an entirely new source of water in the form of silicate globules that appear to have formed millions of years ago as a result of asteroid impacts and volcanic activity.
Using spectrometric equipment, experts found that although the formations in question are really tiny (their size varies from a few micrometers to a few millimeters), in the final sum they could hold an estimated 270 trillion liters of water. This corresponds to a cube with an edge length of approximately 6.5 km.
Not just on the moon
This is, of course, positive news for all future colonists of our natural satellite, who will be able to get to the life-giving liquid simply by heating the balls.
“Our direct measurements of this surface reservoir of lunar water show that impact glass beads can store substantial amounts of solar wind-derived water on the Moon,” states among others, the team in an article published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Also very interesting is the conclusion that similar balls can theoretically occur in other places in the Solar System, or on “other bodies without air”.
