{"id":20732,"date":"2022-04-28T10:21:09","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T09:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=20732"},"modified":"2022-04-28T10:21:09","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T09:21:09","slug":"earths-atmosphere-could-source-lunar-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/earths-atmosphere-could-source-lunar-water\/20732\/","title":{"rendered":"Earth\u2019s atmosphere could be a source of lunar water"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hydrogen and oxygen<\/a> ions escaping from Earth\u2019s upper atmosphere and combining on the Moon<\/a> could be one of the sources of the identified lunar water and ice, according to\u00a0new research\u00a0conducted by Geophysical Institute scientists from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.<\/a><\/p>\n The research led by the UAF Geophysical Institute Associate Research Professor, Gunther\u00a0Kletetschka,\u00a0contributes to a growing body of research regarding water at the Moon\u2019s North and South Poles.<\/p>\n Discovering lunar water is key to NASA’s Artemis project, which is investigating the planned long-term human presence on the Moon \u2013 NASA intends to send humans back to the Moon this decade.<\/p>\n \u201cAs NASA\u2019s Artemis team plans to build a base camp on the Moon\u2019s South Pole, the water ions that originated many eons ago on Earth can be used in the astronauts\u2019 life support system,\u201d\u00a0Kletetschka explained.<\/p>\n This new research suggests that the Moon\u2019s polar regions could potentially hold up to 3,500 cubic kilometres \u2014 840 cubic miles \u2014 or more of surface permafrost or subsurface liquid water, which is created from ions that escaped Earth\u2019s atmosphere. This volume is comparable to North America\u2019s Lake Huron, the world\u2019s eighth-largest lake. Researchers based this total on the lowest volume model calculation \u2014 1% of Earth\u2019s atmospheric escape reaching the moon.<\/p>\n The majority of lunar water is generally believed to have been deposited by asteroids and comets that collided with the Moon. Most of this is assumed to have occurred during a period known as the Late Heavy Bombardment. In that period, about 3.5 billion years ago when the solar system was about 1 billion years old, it is argued that the early inner planets and Earth\u2019s Moon sustained unusually heavy impacts from asteroids.<\/p>\n Scientists also hypothesise that solar wind is another main source of lunar water. The solar wind carries oxygen and hydrogen ions, which may have combined and been deposited on the Moon as water molecules.<\/p>\n Now, however, through new research, scientists have an additional source to explain how water accumulates on the Moon.<\/p>\n The research was published\u00a026 March in the journal\u00a0Scientific Reports<\/em>\u00a0in a paper\u00a0authored by\u00a0Kletetschka and co-authored by PhD student, Nicholas Hasson of the Geophysical Institute and UAF Water and Environmental Research Centre at the Institute for Northern Engineering. Several colleagues from the Czech Republic are also among the co-authors.<\/p>\n Kletetschka and his colleagues suggest that\u00a0hydrogen and oxygen ions are driven into the Moon when it passes through the tail of the Earth\u2019s magnetosphere, which it does on five days of the Moon\u2019s monthly trip around the planet.\u00a0The magnetosphere is the teardrop-shaped bubble created by Earth\u2019s magnetic field that shields the planet from much of the continual stream of charged solar particles.<\/p>\n Recent measurements from multiple space agencies \u2014 NASA, European Space Agency,\u00a0Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and\u00a0Indian Space Research Organisation \u2014 revealed significant numbers of water-forming ions present\u00a0during the Moon\u2019s transit through this part of the magnetosphere. These ions have slowly accumulated since the Late Heavy Bombardment.<\/p>\n The presence of the Moon in the magnetosphere\u2019s tail, called the magnetotail, temporarily affects some of Earth\u2019s magnetic field lines \u2014 those that are broken, and trail off into space for many thousands of miles. Not all of Earth\u2019s field lines are attached to the planet at both ends; some have only one attachment point.<\/p>\n The Moon\u2019s presence in the magnetotail causes certain broken-field lines to reconnect with their opposing broken counterpart. When that happens, hydrogen and oxygen ions that had escaped Earth rush to those reconnected field lines and are accelerated back toward Earth.<\/p>\n The paper\u2019s authors suggest that many of those returning ions\u00a0hit the passing Moon, which has no magnetosphere of its own to repel them. \u201cIt is like the moon is in the shower \u2014 a shower of water ions coming back to Earth, falling on the Moon\u2019s surface,\u201d\u00a0Kletetschka said.<\/p>\n The ions then combine to form the lunar permafrost. Some of that, through geologic and other processes such as asteroid impacts, is driven below the surface, where it can become lunar water.<\/p>\n The research team used gravitational data from NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to study polar regions along with several major lunar craters. Anomalies in underground measurements at impact craters indicate locations of fractured rock conducive to containing liquid water or ice. Gravity measurements at those subsurface locations suggest the presence of ice or liquid water, concluded the researchers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a new study, scientists believe that another source of lunar water could involve the Earth\u2019s magnetosphere. Hydrogen and oxygen ions escaping from Earth\u2019s upper atmosphere and combining on the Moon could be one of the sources of the identified lunar water and ice, according to\u00a0new research\u00a0conducted by Geophysical Institute scientists from the University of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":20742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[771],"tags":[818,801,821,3477],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLunar water source<\/h3>\n
Earths atmosphere<\/h3>\n
Magnetosphere\u2019s tail<\/h3>\n