China’s Chang’e-5 probe has found small glass spheres in an impact crater on the moon that contain water. Samples collected from a 2020 mission show that these spheres contain 2,000 parts per million of water, and as a result, could be used as a source of human water supply for lunar missions.
According to Engjet, researchers have published an article in the journal Nature Geoscience about these glass spheres containing water by examining the samples collected from the moon. They say on the effect Collision of asteroids with the earth’s moon or Ancient volcanoes In this sphere, there were spheres that had oxygen atoms. Then these atoms with hydrogen ions Solar storms combined and formed water in a chemical reaction.
Scientists claim that these glass spheres are very small and their size is between A few tens of micrometers to a few millimeters Is. But their number is so large that it can be (on paper) approx 270 trillion kg of water provide In other words, this water can fill 100 million swimming pools the size of Olympic swimming pools.
Extracting water on the moon still faces challenges
However, scientists have not yet found a way to collect these orbs, and extracting water from them thermally takes about 100 degrees Celsius also needs However, it is said that these spheres can be a source of water supply in the future of the moon residences.
The researchers have also stated in a part of this article that they believe that these glass spheres should also exist in other moons of the solar system: “The presence of water stored in the glass spheres is consistent with the identification of water in the low-altitude regions of the moon. [سیارک] Vesta and Mercury Is. “Our findings show that impact glasses on the surface of airless bodies in the solar system are able to store water from solar storms and release it into space.”
Glass spheres are not the first evidence of water on the moon. In 2009, NASA sent a probe to the Kaboos Crater and noticed the presence of water there. In 2018, direct evidence of ice reservoirs was seen in the dark craters of the North and South Poles.
