- 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.
-
- 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.
-
- 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.
-
- 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.
-
- 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.
-
- Over time,
some of the spheres become buried beneath lunar dust particles, known as
regolith, and are trapped underground with the water still inside.
-
- 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.
-
- 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.
-
- 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.
-
March 29, 2023 MOON - glass beads of water? 3936
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--- Friday, March 31, 2023 ---------------------------
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