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<\/a>Scientists used to think the moon was completely devoid of water, but recent studies have proven that false.<\/p><\/div>\n
However, scientists couldn\u2019t be sure if the Apollo samples are unique or if other volcanic flows on the moon are filled with water-bearing glass. (Find out how\u00a0flying oceans of magma help demystify the moon’s creation.)<\/p>\n
In a\u00a0new study published today in\u00a0Nature Geoscience, scientists reexamined the Apollo samples and used more recent satellite data to look for signs of water-bearing beads elsewhere on the moon. They found that the volcanic deposits are indeed widespread, which suggests that the material inside the moon is wetter than previously thought.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that they see this feature associated with the glasses tells us that there was indeed quite a bit of water in the interior of the moon when these volcanic eruptions were occurring,\u201d says Anthony Colaprete, a NASA scientist who reviewed the paper.
\nHere\u2019s what we now know about water on the moon.<\/p>\n
Has Anyone Found Water on the Moon Before?<\/h2>\n
Yes, but only very recently. Scientists used to think the entire moon was bone-dry. But in 2008, researchers examined those glass beads from the Apollo samples and\u00a0found the first known trace amounts of water.<\/p>\n
From that point on, lunar water discoveries started gushing. In 2009, NASA crashed a rocket and a satellite into a crater on the moon\u2019s south pole, in the hopes of picking up additional watery evidence. The crashes gave off\u00a0signatures associated with water ice and hydroxyl\u2014a highly reactive molecule associated with water.<\/p>\n
And in 2010, scientists looked closer at other collected moon rocks and found more signatures of water in a mineral called apatite. That\u2019s when geologists began suspecting that the moon holds hidden reservoirs locked in its rocks. If you were to take all of the water in the moon\u2019s interior, it would\u00a0create a one-yard-deep ocean\u00a0covering the entire surface, geologist Francis McCubbin estimated at the time.<\/p>\n
How Is This Study Different?<\/h2>\n
While we\u2019ve mapped a good amount of the moon\u2019s surface water, we don\u2019t know for sure what the interior of the moon is like, in part because we have very few samples of volcanic rocks belched up from the lunar mantle.<\/p>\n
For their study, Ralph Milliken of Brown University and Shuai Li at the University of Hawaii wanted to find out more about the amount of water inside the moon. (See rare pictures of the moon captured by Apollo astronauts.) The study is one of the first to try and answer this question using satellite mapping of volcanic debris called pyroclastic flows.<\/p>\n
So How Much Water Is There?<\/h2>\n
Unfortunately, while this study suggests water is indeed more abundant inside the moon, it\u2019s hard to know for sure how much exists.<\/p>\n
Studies from 2011 revealed that the volcanic beads contained similar amounts of water as volcanic basalts on Earth. And deep within our planet, there is probably\u00a0more water\u00a0than all of the surface oceans, lakes, and rivers combined.<\/p>\n