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Water Found on the Moon

Evidence of water has been found on the moon. India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar spacecraft has orbited the moon and has seen water on the moon’s surface. The water likely comes from an unknown source deep in the lunar crust. The water was found by NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Chandrayaan-1 probe. This was the first detection of “magmatic water” which confirms analyses and hypothesis on moon rocks brought back to Earth by Astronauts on the Apollo in the 1970s, according to Space.com.

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory’s lead author Rachel Klima commented, “now that we have detected water that is likely form the interior of the moon, we can start to compare this water with other characteristics of the lunar surface.” The scientist added that the internal magmatic water will offer clues about the moon’s composition, answering questions like how the moon formed, “and how the magmatic processes changed as it cooled.”

The crater Bullialdus has a center peak which had a trace molecule called hydroxyl. This molecule has one atom of oxygen and hydrogen. This is the evidence that shows that the crater had originated under the surface of the moon, and that there was water there. Scientist are excited about new experiments and tests that are now possible because of the newest discovery on our nearest cosmic body.

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