October 27, 2020

The Moon, water, and the SOFIA flying telescope

Two articles published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” report as many studies on the presence of water on the Moon. A team of researchers used the SOFIA flying telescope to find direct evidence of the presence of water molecules even in regions other than the polar ones. Another team examined the so-called cold traps, regions in the shadows on the lunar surface where there’s perennial darkness that can allow the presence of water ice, mapping their distribution. In the end, the amount of water present on the Moon may be far greater than that known from previous research. However, there are still various questions, starting with the possibility that it’s partly present in glass beads and therefore not immediately usable in space missions.