Scientists Discover Water Inside Tiny Glass Beads On Moon

Facts

• According to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience, it has been discovered that tiny impact glass beads on the Moon contain an 'efficient water recharge mechanism that could sustain the lunar surface water cycle.'¹
• Scientists suggest such minuscule beads of glass may contain an estimated 270T kilograms of solar wind-derived water – trapped in the top 40 feet of the lunar surface – that future lunar explorers may be able to extract for human use.²
• The glass beads, ranging in size from about 50 micrometers to a millimeter, are formed by tiny meteorites and could serve as a water reservoir when interacting with solar winds carrying hydrogen and oxygen.³
• The study is based upon an analysis of 117 glass beads collected from the Moon's surface in 2020 during China's robotic Chang'e-5 mission.⁴
• The findings match with a revelation made by NASA in 2020, when its SOFIA orbiter confirmed the presence of water on the sunlit side of the Moon for the first time.⁵
• The discovery comes as the European Space Agency plans to establish a moon village, while NASA's Artemis mission aims to put the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon.⁶

Sources: ¹Nature, ²Space, ³CNN, ⁴France 24, ⁵NASA and ⁶Business Insider.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Guardian. While hints that the Moon is not an entirely arid wasteland have existed for decades, this discovery is one of the most important breakthroughs since NASA's orbiters found evidence of frozen water in deep, steep-sided craters near the Moon's poles. The discovery could one day help future astronauts produce drinking water and breathable air, as well as manufacture rocket fuel on the Moon's surface, enabling sustainable surface operations with decreasing supply needs from Earth.
• Narrative B, as provided by Kake. This study fills some gaps in the theories surrounding a lunar water cycle. However, there are likely better places for astronauts to harvest water for practical purposes. With scientists theorizing that there may be large deposits of water ice at the Moon's poles, as NASA prepares to return to the Moon it is essential to focus scientific efforts on exploring the Moon's polar regions, which seem to have a lot of water mixed in with the regolith.

Predictions