Lunar Water from Underground?

[RenaissanceLady]

It appears the moon may not be quite as dry as we had assumed:

Moon water discovery hints at mystery source deep underground

Evidence of water spotted on the moon's surface by a sharp-eyed spacecraft likely originated from an unknown source deep in the lunar interior, scientists say.

The find — made by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 probe — marks the first detection of such "magmatic water" from lunar orbit and confirms analyses performed recently on moon rocks brought to Earth by Apollo astronautsfour decades ago, researchers said.

"Now that we have detected water that is likely from the interior of the moon, we can start to compare this water with other characteristics of the lunar surface," study lead author Rachel Klima of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., said in a statement. [Water on the Moon: The Search in Photos]

"This internal magmatic water also provides clues about the moon's volcanic processes and internal composition, which helps us address questions about how the moon formed, and how magmatic processes changed as it cooled," Klima added.

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3, imaged a 37-mile-wide (60 kilometers) impact crater near the lunar equator called Bullialdus, whose central peak is composed of a type of rock that forms when magma is trapped deep underground. This rock was excavated and exposed by the impact that formed Bullialdus, Klima said.

"Compared to its surroundings, we found that the central portion of this crater contains a significant amount of hydroxyl — a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom — which is evidence that the rocks in this crater contain water that originated beneath the lunar surface," she said.

For the complete article, please read: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/moon-water-discovery-hints-mystery-source-deep-underground-8C11022792

It would be fascinating if there's truly a water source on the moon, even if it came from other places. (I also wonder if this will revive the talk about underground moon bases?) No matter how this develops, it gives us some insight into how the moon was formed. It might even give us some ideas about our own planet and the role meteorites have played with developing life.

 

[exo_doc]

Cool article R'lady. Thanks!

 

[boomerang]

It seems the more we look throughout the solar system, the more prevalent are things we previously thought existed only on earth. Such as complex organic molecules and water !

 

[mike]

Makes sense when you consider

After the Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago, our planet was first hit by a meteor the size of Mars and then by a hailstorm of comets.
Both events helped to shape the Earth as we know it today: the meteor impact created the moon and the comets provided the Earth with water.

These two studies combined form a picture which supports the theory that the Earth was filled with water 3.9 billion years ago, and that the 3.9 billion year-old craters on the Moon were created by comets, not by meteors.

Early Earth was pounded into pieces | ScienceNordic

Looks like the same comets that brought water here would have deposited some on the moon too