Friday, March 31, 2023

3937 - MOON - glass beads of water?

 

-   3937 -  MOON  -  glass beads of water?

   Chinese researchers may have discovered billions of tons of water inside strange glass spheres buried on the moon, and they could be used as a future water source for moon bases.



---------------------  3937  -  MOON  -  glass beads of water?

-    Scientists detected water trapped inside glass spherules on the moon after analyzing soil samples brought back by China's Chang'e-5 mission. Spherules from an 800,000-year-old meteor impact was found in the Transantarctic Mountains. Similar beads on the moon may contain billions of tons of buried water.

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-   The tiny glass spherules, collected in lunar soil samples and brought to Earth by China's Chang'e-5 mission in December 2020, could be so abundant that they store up to 330 billion tons of water across the moon's surface.

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-    The glass spherules, also known as “impact glasses” or “microtektites”, form when meteorites smash into the moon at tens to hundreds of thousands of miles per hour, blasting chunks of lunar crust above the moon's surface.

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-    Inside these plumes, silicate minerals heated to molten temperatures by the force of the impact combine to form tiny glass beads that are sprinkled like crumbs over the surrounding landscape.

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-   The moon's soil contains oxygen, which means that the beads do too. When struck with ionized hydrogen atoms (protons) from solar wind, the oxygen in the molten spheres reacts to form water that is sucked inside the silicate capsules.

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-     Over time, some of the spheres become buried beneath lunar dust particles, known as regolith, and are trapped underground with the water still inside.

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-     At the right temperatures, some of these beads release the water into the moon's atmosphere and onto its surface, acting as a reservoir that is slowly refilled over time. This could make these spheres an ideal source of water, as well as hydrogen and oxygen.

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-    If we want to extract the water in impact glass beads for future lunar exploration, first we collect them, then boil them in an oven and cool the released water vapor.   Another benefit is that impact glass beads are common in lunar soils, from equator to polar and from east to west, globally and evenly.

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-    China's Chang'e 5 mission was the fifth in a series of missions that aim to lay the groundwork for future human landings on the moon's surface. The mission landed on the moon to scoop material from its surface before returning to Earth in December 2020.

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                   March 29, 2023        MOON  -  glass beads of water?          3936                                                                                                                         

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--------------------- ---  Friday, March 31, 2023  ---------------------------

 

 

 

 

         

 

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