A new study, led by Joshua Bandfield of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, suggests that water is widely spread across our moon’s surface.
It can be found day or night and in many locations and types of terrain.
The findings reported in this study were found to contradict previous research.
But the study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, also finds the water may not be easy to retrieve.
Using data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Indian Space Research Organization‘s Chandrayaan-1 Orbiter the research suggests most of this water is in the form of a hydroxyl, or OH rather than regular water or H2O.
Hydroxyl contains one atom each of oxygen and hydrogen, and according to scientists, tends to chemically attack or attach itself to other molecules.
So, before any hydroxyl can be used, it first must be extracted from moon minerals.
But scientists think lunar water, in addition to drinking, might also be used for a variety of purposes ranging from power generation to making rocket fuel.
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