The moon has much more water than was believed in the past. Most of the water is underground, in molecular form and actually came from the earth more than 4 billion years ago. Earth’s only natural satellite was believed to be bone‐dry before India’s Chandrayaan‐1 stunned the world when one of its on‐board instruments found the “elixir of life” on an otherwise barren and craggy land 3.8 lakh km from the earth. The water was not like what is seen on earth, but a thin film of molecules known as hydroxyl. Analysing data collected by the same instrument, the Moon Minerology Mapper (M3), a team of US scientists have now found large quantities of underground water in the same hydroxyl form. “It came from earth about 4.6 billion years ago, when the moon was formed,” team leader Mr Rachel Klima from Johns Hopkins University told Deccan Herald.
Source: Deccan Herald
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