Water formation on the Moon:

[beecee]

https://phys.org/news/2019-05-scientists-mechanisms-formation-moon.html

Scientists discover one of the mechanisms of water formation on the moon:

The results of a recent study conducted by the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the agency's automatic interplanetary station, show the existence of 'permafrost' near the poles of the moon with a relatively high content of water ice (up to 5% by weight). It is believed that water ice could supply a life support system for the future Russian Lunar Station, and that it could also produce hydrogen-oxygen fuel for flights into deep space.

Researchers from the Higher School of Economics and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have discovered one of the mechanisms for how water forms on the moon. Scientists have shown that silver hydroxide molecules are released from silicon dioxide in the lunar regolith (soil). These molecules react easily with hydrogen, leading to the formation of water and silver. This means that water molecules can be formed on the moon. These molecules will become part of the near-surface lunar soil. In some areas, the proportion of water formed by this mechanism in the lunar regolith may exceed 10-6 %.

 

more at link....

the paper:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134%2FS0010952519020047

Water Formation in the Lunar Regolith:

Abstract

This study shows that oxygen atoms can be released from a crystal lattice of silicon dioxide in the lunar regolith as parts of silver hydroxide molecules. In turn, silver hydroxide can relatively easily react with hydrogen to generate water and silver. This means that the formation of water molecules involved in near-surface lunar soil is possible. The presence of water molecules in lunar soil can affect the photoelectric properties of the lunar regolith and the parameters of the dusty plasma system over the Moon.

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Another article....

https://phys.org/news/2019-05-formation-moon.html

For the first time, a cross-disciplinary study has shown chemical, physical, and material evidence for water formation on the moon. Two teams from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa collaborated on the project: physical chemists at the UH Mānoa Department of Chemistry's W.M. Keck Research Laboratory in Astrochemistry and planetary scientists at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP).

Although recent discoveries by orbiting spacecraft such as the Lunar Prospector and the hard lander Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite suggest the existence of water ice at the poles the moon, the origin of this water has remained uncertain. Lunar water represents one of the key requirements for permanent colonization of the moon as a feedstock for fuel and energy generation (hydrogen, oxygen) and also as "drinking water."

more at link....

the paper:

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/05/14/1819600116

Untangling the formation and liberation of water in the lunar regolith:

Significance:

Observational evidence collected over the past two decades supports the existence of water on the Moon. However, the sources and chemical and/or physical processes responsible for the production of the lunar water are still unknown. Here, we provide evidence via laboratory simulation experiments that water can be generated and liberated through thermal shocks induced by micrometeorite impacts on solar-wind proton-implanted anhydrous silicates. Our findings are of fundamental importance for explaining the origin of water on the Moon as well as on other airless bodies such as Ceres and for untangling the present distribution of water in our solar system.

Abstract:

The source of water (H2O) and hydroxyl radicals (OH), identified on the lunar surface, represents a fundamental, unsolved puzzle. The interaction of solar-wind protons with silicates and oxides has been proposed as a key mechanism, but laboratory experiments yield conflicting results that suggest that proton implantation alone is insufficient to generate and liberate water. Here, we demonstrate in laboratory simulation experiments combined with imaging studies that water can be efficiently generated and released through rapid energetic heating like micrometeorite impacts into anhydrous silicates implanted with solar-wind protons. These synergistic effects of solar-wind protons and micrometeorites liberate water at mineral temperatures from 10 to 300 K via vesicles, thus providing evidence of a key mechanism to synthesize water in silicates and advancing our understanding on the origin of water as detected on the Moon and other airless bodies in our solar system such as Mercury and asteroids.

Edited May 25, 2019 by beecee