The Moon May Have Been Covertly Siphoning Earth's Water For Billions of Years

How did water and ice get to the Moon? A new study suggests that the Earth's atmosphere may be a source of lunar water.

Scientists say that combining hydrogen and oxygen on the Moon could have created as much as 3,500 square kilometers of surface permafrost or liquid water.

As the Moon passes through the Earth's magnetosphere, hydrogen and oxygen are driven into the lunar surface, according to the thinking. Every lunar month, that occurs five days.

Some of Earth's magnetic field lines are broken because of the Sun's solar wind pushing against this bubble.

When the Moon messes with the Earth's magnetosphere, some of the broken connections get fixed, which leads to hydrogen and oxygen ion escape from Earth's atmosphere.

It is like the Moon is in the shower, a shower of water ion coming back to Earth.

The researchers suggest that there is no Moon magnetosphere, so as the ion hits the lunar surface, permafrost is created. Some of the frost could be driven below the surface and turned into liquid water.

The Late Heavy Bombardment, when the early Earth and Moon were bombarded with heavy impacts from other heavenly bodies, may have caused a slow accumulation of these ion over the billions of years.

The data from NASA's lunar observatory was used to look at the Moon's polar regions and several major craters. The team spotted anomalies that could be related to trapping permafrost.

The researchers wrote in their published paper that capillary impacts allow suitable pore space networks for hosting large liquid water reservoirs.

Back of envelope calculations suggested that thousands of liters of water phase may have accumulated in the Moon's sub layers over the past 3.5 billion years.

The south and north poles of the Moon have surface ice. NASA.

Scientists think that a lot of the water on the Moon may have arrived through this method.

The lake would be filled by the predicted amount. The necessary cover would be provided by craters and rock fissures.

NASA wants to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon, but it needs a suitable lunar station with a nearby water source. The research could help experts decide where to put that station.

Kletetschka says that the water ion that originated on Earth can be used in the astronauts life support system.

The research has been published.