Sunrise, seen from the moon
NASA’s laboratory simulation has confirmed a 60 -year forecast that the sun is a source of the components that make up the water on the moon.
After all, the solar wind can even produce water on the moon.
According to the theory, when a flow of loaded particles, known as solar wind, reaches the lunar surface, triggers a chemical reaction that can generate water molecules.
The discovery, recently in JGR Planetstheory that much of the moon water, a crucial resource for exploration, is frozen in regions permanently in the shadow of the poles.
“Most interesting is that, with only lunar solo and a sun building block, which is always releasing hydrogen, there is the possibility of creating water,” he said in, in, Li hsia yeoresearcher at NASA’s Goddard space flight center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Researchers explain that the solar wind constantly flows from the sun. In addition, it is composed mainly of protonswhich are nuclei of hydrogen atoms that lost their electrons.
Traveling over one million kilometers per hour, the solar wind bathes the entire solar system. Evidence of this is recorded on Earth when it illuminates the sky with the famous boreal or southern auroras.
Spatial probes measurements have already suggested that solar wind is primarily responsible for water formation, or its components on the lunar surface.
An important track, confirmed by the experience of the team led by Yeo: Spectral signature of the moon is related to changes in water throughout the day.
In some regions, it is more intense in colder mornings and weakens as the surface warms, probably because water and hydrogen molecules move or escape to space.
As the surface cools again at night, the signal reaches its peak. This daily cycle points to an active source – probably the solar wind – that reflexes small amounts of water on the moon every day.
