It was discovered by a team of scientists in China the new traces of the impact of the water on the crystals
lunar soil
a Chang’e 5 (CE5) mission, according to a study published in the special journal “Nature Geoscience”.
A group led by Professor Sen Hu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that these crystals are probably a new reservoir of water on the Moon, marking the entry and exit of water generated by the solar wind and acting as buffers to the lunar surface water cycle.
As the publication mentions, surface water from this satellite arouses the interest of the scientific community due to its potential to be used “in situ” by future space exploration missions.
After many lunar missions have confirmed the presence of a water structure or a type of ice on the Moon, there is no doubt that the star contains the element on the surface, although much less than the Earth.
Scientists believe that water resources have yet to be identified that have the ability to counteract the lunar surface water cycle, that is, to retain water on the satellite and not escape into space. One of the members of the Chinese team proposed that these impact crystals, a ubiquitous presence in the lunar soil, could be a candidate for these investigations of “unidentified waters or reserves”.
Crystals collected by the Chang’e V mission, which landed in December 2020 to collect lunar samples for two days before returning to Earth – have “light chemical compositions and surfaces”.
Their abundance of water is peculiar, and their composition shows that this probably arises from the winds of the sun. These crystals acted as a “sponge to moisten the surface of the lunar water cycle,” according to the researchers’ conclusions.
“These findings indicate that impact crystals on the surface of the Moon and other terrestrial bodies in the Solar System can store water derived from the solar wind and dissolve it into space.” Professor Hu is shown.
The Chinese university study was done in collaboration with Nanjing University, the Open University, the Natural History Museum, the University of Manchester and the University of Science and Technology of China.
