The study published in Nature Communications of polymer journal.
By Rakesh Agrawal
Humankind has always been awestruck by the Moon, our only satellite and many cultures and civilizations have treated it as a god. For many years, it has been treated as a water and airless wasteland; although speculations for the presence of water in its inner surface have off & on been made.
Chandrayan, India’s unmanned lunar mission confirmed the presence of water in November, 2008. But, the source of this water was again disputed—whether it was from comets or from asteroids.
Now, a new study by the British Earth Sciences Department, Natural History Museum has claimed that this source of underground lunar water is from an asteroid that must have struck the moon in past and left water behind.
The study published in Nature Communications of polymer journal, entitled, ‘An asteroidal origin for water in the Moon,’ says that all Apollo Missions to the Moon have concluded the satellite to be waterless one, but recent discoveries have found indirect evidences in the moon and we found that the source of such water must be a comet as an amalgamation of carbonaceous materials is the cause of the presence of water along with nitrogen in the Earth–Moon system.
The study also says, comets that have deuterium rich water contributed to a large extent; about more than 20% of the water in the Moon about 4.5–4.3 billion years ago that corresponds with the origin of water in the inner Solar System; from Mercury to Mars.
This study, written by Jessica J. Barnes is based on the lunar sample that measures the amount of hydrogen in an equivalent amount of OH or H2O in lunar volcanic glass beads, melt inclusions and apatite in lunar basalts and highlands samples.
Similar nature of water is found on the earth too and it could be possible that the water locked up inside of the Moon was either inherited directly from the evolving Earth or delivered to the Earth–Moon system shortly after the formation of the Moon and it could be only from a comet that usually have a long tail of ice.