According to new research by the University of Alaska, hydrogen and oxygen ion escaping from Earth's upper atmosphere and combining on the moon could be one of the sources of lunar water and ice.
A growing body of research about water at the north and south poles of the moon has been led by the associate research professor.
NASA wants to have a long-term human presence on the moon. Humans are going to be sent back to the moon.
Kletetschka said that the water ion that originated on Earth can be used in the astronauts life support system.
The new research shows that the moon's polar regions could hold up to 3,500 square kilometers of surface permafrost or liquid water created from ion that escaped Earth's atmosphere. That volume is comparable to North America's Lake Huron, the world's eighth-largest lake.
The researchers used the lowest volume model calculation to arrive at the total.
Most of the lunar water is believed to have been deposited by asteroids and comets. The Late Heavy Bombardment is when most was. When the solar system was about 1 billion years old, it is argued that the early inner planets and Earth's moon sustained heavy impact from asteroids.
Scientists theorize that the solar wind is a source. The solar wind may have deposited water on the moon.
There is another way to explain how water accumulates on the moon.
The paper was co-authored by Kletetschka and Hasson and was published in the journal Scientific Reports. The co-authors are from the Czech Republic.
When the moon passes through the tail of the Earth's magnetosphere, hydrogen and oxygen are driven into it, according to Kletetschka and his colleagues. The magnetosphere protects the planet from the stream of charged solar particles by creating a bubble of magnetic field.
The number of water-forming ion present during the moon's transit through this part of the magnetosphere was revealed by recent measurements from multiple space agencies.
The Late Heavy Bombardment has slowly accumulated these ion.
The presence of the moon in the magnetosphere temporarily affects some of the Earth's magnetic field lines, which are broken and go into space for many thousands of miles. Not all of Earth's field lines are attached to the planet at the same time. Think of each of these as a thread that is tied to a pole.
The broken field lines are able to connect with their broken counterpart because of the moon. When that happens, hydrogen and oxygen ion that had escaped Earth rush to those reconnected field lines and are accelerated back to Earth.
The paper suggests that many returning ion hit the moon, which has no magnetosphere to repel them.
It is like the moon is in the shower, a shower of water ion coming back to Earth.
The ion combine to form the lunar permafrost. It can become liquid water below the surface through processes such as asteroid impacts.
The research team used the data from NASA to study the polar regions. There are anomalies in underground measurements at impact craters. The research paper states that the presence of ice or liquid water is suggested by the gravity measurement.
Kletetschka is one of the four authors of the new paper.
More information: Gunther Kletetschka et al, Distribution of water phase near the poles of the Moon from gravity aspects, Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-08305-x Journal information: Scientific Reports Citation: Earth's atmosphere may be source of some lunar water (2022, April 28) retrieved 28 April 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-04-earth-atmosphere-source-lunar.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
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