Data from Chandrayaan-1 shows that Earth’s electrons form water on the moon

The team led by researchers from the University of Hawai’i (UH) at Manoa in the US discovered that these electrons in the Earth’s plasma layer contribute to weathering processes (the breaking down or dissolution of rocks and minerals) on the moon’s surface .

The research, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, found that the electrons may have contributed to the formation of water on the moon’s body.

Why water on the moon can be useful?

Knowing the concentrations and distributions of water on the moon is crucial for understanding its formation and evolution, and for providing water supplies for future human exploration, the researchers said.

The new finding could also help explain the origin of the water ice previously discovered in the moon’s permanently shadowed regions, they said.

How did Chandrayaan-1 discover water on the moon?

Chandrayaan-1 played a crucial role in the discovery of water molecules on the moon. Chandrayaan-1 was launched in October 2008 by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and operated until August 2009. The mission included an orbiter and an impactor.

The scientists analyzed remote sensing data collected by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument, an imaging spectrometer, on board India’s Chandrayaan 1 mission between 2008 and 2009.

How water formed on the moon?

Solar wind, which is composed of high-energy particles such as protons, bombards the moon’s surface and is considered one of the main ways water formed on the moon.

The team of experts examined changes in surface weathering as the moon passes through Earth’s magnetotail, a region that almost completely shields the moon’s body from solar wind, but not from the sun’s light photons.

“When the moon is outside the magnetotail, the lunar surface is bombarded with solar wind. Inside the magnetotail, there are almost no solar wind protons and water formation is expected to decrease to almost zero,” said Shuai Li, assistant researcher at the UH Manoa School of Ocean.

In particular, they assessed changes in water formation as the moon passed through Earth’s magnetotail, which includes the plasma sheet.

“To my surprise, the remote sensing observations showed that the water formation in Earth’s magnetotail is almost identical to the time when the moon was outside Earth’s magnetotail,” Li said.

“This indicates that there may be additional formation processes or new water sources in the magnetotail that are not directly related to the implantation of protons from the solar wind. In particular, radiation from high-energy electrons shows similar effects to the protons from the solar wind,” he says. explained.

This finding and the team’s previous study of rusty lunar poles indicate that Earth is strongly connected to the moon in many unrecognized aspects, the researchers added.

(With PTI inputs)

Updated: Sep 15, 2023 4:03 PM IST