Water on the moon is more common than we thought, studies reveal [View all]

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Source: Space.com

Water on the moon is more common than we thought, studies reveal

By Chelsea Gohd an hour ago

Lunar "cold traps" bode well for future Artemis astronauts, NASA says.

Water on the moon is more common than scientists thought, with pockets of ice hiding in shadowy regions of "eternal darkness," some as small as a penny, new studies reveal.

Scientists have been finding signs of water on the moon since 2009 and, in 2018, confirmed the presence of water ice on the lunar surface. Now, researchers in two new studies have not only further confirmed the presence of water on the moon, but also found that the lunar surface could be harboring plentiful patches of secret ice in "cold traps," regions of permanently shadowed spots on the moon.

"If you can imagine standing on the surface of the moon near one of its poles, you would see shadows all over the place," study author Paul Hayne, assistant professor in the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics at CU Boulder, said in a statement. "Many of those tiny shadows could be full of ice."

Finding water on the moon

In one of these studies, a team led by Hayne used data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to study the distribution of cold traps, where water could not only exist but be permanently captured, on the moon. They found not only a wide variety of cold traps — with "micro cold traps" as small as 0.39 inches (1 centimeter) in diameter — but there could be hundreds or even thousands of times tinier "micro" cold traps than larger ones. They also found these permanent shadows at both poles.

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Read more: https://www.space.com/water-on-moon-shadow-cold-traps-discovery