Chinese scientists made a major discovery! Where is the 270 billion tons of lunar water hidden?

There may be nearly 300 billion tons of water hidden on the moon! The latest research by Chinese scientists is very exciting. If this is true, our astronauts may not have to worry about drinking water after establishing a lunar base.

On November 24, 2020, my country's Chang'e-5 lunar probe was officially launched into space, and on December 17, it brought back about 1.73 kilograms of lunar soil samples to Earth. This is the first time in nearly 50 years that humans have reproduced the feat of returning lunar surface samples, which plays an extremely important role in scientists' research on the lunar geological environment and exploration of the lunar evolution history.

Scholars from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing University, University of Science and Technology of China and other research institutions, together with scientists from the UK, conducted a joint study on 32 uniformly textured impact glass beads in the Chang'e-5 lunar soil and made major discoveries.

On March 27, they published their research results in the latest issue of Nature Geoscience, announcing to the world that the study of glass beads on the moon's surface proved that there are indeed a lot of water resources hidden on the moon. Not only that, the researchers also made quantitative estimates this time, believing that the total amount of water hidden in the moon's glass beads may be as much as 270 billion tons!

The so-called glass beads refer to the minerals produced when small celestial bodies in space collide with large celestial bodies. We know that these small celestial bodies are extremely fast and have extremely high kinetic energy. The impact will instantly convert into heat energy, melting the rocks at the impact point. These rocks will instantly cool down and form glass particles with a diameter of only a few hundred or even tens of microns. These are the glass beads that scientists have found on the surface of the moon today.

These glass beads contain many secrets about the moon. It is through the study of glass beads in lunar samples brought back by NASA's Apollo program that scientists confirmed the fact that there is water on the moon, overturning the previous theory that the moon is dry.

The next question is, where did the water on the moon come from? Did it get water from the impact of water-bearing asteroids or comets, just like the Earth? This is not impossible, but it is not enough to explain the source of all the water on the moon.

Scientists believe that a large part of the water on the moon comes from the sun. While the sun emits light and heat, it also releases strong radiation. This radiation includes not only electromagnetic waves such as ultraviolet rays, but also solar wind formed by plasma such as protons. After these protons hit the surface of the moon, they combine with oxygen in the lunar soil to form water, which is stored in the glass beads.

This way of forming water is not suitable for the Earth, because the Earth has a complete atmosphere that can resist a large amount of solar radiation. Although the moon has no atmosphere to surround the water on its surface, it has also found a new channel for the formation of water. The universe is really amazing.

Similarly, not only the moon, but also rocky bodies without atmosphere, such as Mercury, are likely to store a large amount of water in glass beads. Hu Sen, a geophysicist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the corresponding author of this article, said: "These findings show that impact glass on the surface of the moon and other atmosphereless bodies in the solar system can store water from the solar wind and release it into space."

The researchers say the beads are vital to the moon's water cycle, which can be replenished when water on the lunar surface is lost to space.

Another point worth noting is that the water content in the impact glass beads shows obvious diffusion ring characteristics. Specifically, the water content decreases from the outside to the inside. The researchers further analyzed and found that the hydrogen isotope composition of the outer area is highly consistent with the solar wind. The ratio of various isotopes of the same element is the "identity card" of its source, which means that the water here does come from the protons contained in the solar wind as previously speculated.

In addition, the hydrogen content at the outer edge of some glass beads has decreased. They believe that this is probably because these glass beads have undergone impact or heating events, resulting in the loss of some water.

In short, this study once again confirms the important role of solar wind in the formation of lunar water. Moreover, this study confirms more than just previous theories.

Hui Hejiu, a professor at Nanjing University and co-corresponding author of the paper, mentioned in an interview: "There is also a view that there is a water reservoir deep in the lunar soil, but this water reservoir has not been discovered."

In this study, scientists analyzed and studied 32 uniformly textured impact glass beads in the Chang'e-5 lunar soil and found that the average water content of these impact glass beads was as high as 0.05%.

Professor Hui Hejiu further explained: "This is equivalent to 0.5 kilograms of water in one ton of impact glass beads, which is more than we imagined." The researchers pointed out that the impact glass beads in the lunar soil are undoubtedly a treasure trove of water on the lunar surface.

However, Professor Hui Hejiu also pointed out: "The water in the glass beads mentioned here is not water in the usual sense, but hydrogen existing in the glass beads. This hydrogen can be converted into water that we can use through certain reactions."

That is to say, if humans want to use the water on the moon after building a base in the future, they will need to do some processing. Even so, this discovery is still good news for us, because it is better to have something than nothing. Astronauts cannot bring drinking water from Earth to the moon, so they can only use local materials. As long as these glass beads have the conditions to produce water, we can find a way to extract water.

According to the plan, my country is expected to implement manned lunar landing and build a lunar base in 2030. This progress can be said to be comparable to that of the United States, or even earlier. At present, space resources follow the principle of first come, first served. If my country can build a lunar base first, it is likely to choose the area with the richest water resources, which is also what the United States is most worried about.

The research on Chang'e 5 can provide direction for the site selection of the lunar base for our astronauts, and even have guiding value for future deep space exploration. It can be said that the Chang'e 5 mission not only allows us to better understand the history of the moon, but also broadens our path to becoming a space power in the future.

At present, my country is already preparing for the Chang'e 6, 7 and even 8 missions. Although the Americans landed on the moon earlier than us, it is still uncertain who will be able to develop lunar resources first...