U.S. scientists measure water from Moon for first time

William Atkins
Friday, 27 May 2011 22:53

Science - Space

Researchers with funding from NASA measured - for the first time - water from the Moon and find that the water content in lunar magma is 100 times higher than previously thought.

Go back about 39 years and astronauts from NASA's Apollo 17 mission was on the Moon collecting lunar samples for return to Earth.

One sample returned, called '74220', is classified as high titanium 'orange glass soil' of volcanic origin. It was: 'Taken from deep trench from Station 4, on rim of 120 meter Shorty crater'.

Now, American scientists working from funding provided by NASA, used state-of-the-art ion microprobe instruments to analyze this lunar sample.

And, in the process they measured water within it.

 

They state in a paper published in Science magazine: "The lunar melt inclusions contain 615 to 1410 ppm [parts per million] water, and high correlated amounts of fluorine (50 to 78 ppm), sulfur (612 to 877 ppm) and chlorine (1.5 to 3.0 ppm)."

And, "These volatile contents are very similar to primitive terrestrial mid-ocean ridge basalts and indicate that some parts of the lunar interior contain as much water as Earth's upper mantle."

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