Researchers have performed a chemical analysis of moon rocks and the results, obtained from two different lunar observers, could reveal details of our close neighbor's formation.
According to a press release, a team led a University of Hawaii - Manoa (UHM) researcher has found water trapped in volcanic glass, which is not liquid. The water was chemically infused within the lunar rocks and those from the moon's interior tend to have more water.
"Basically, whatever happened to the Moon also happened to the Earth," study lead author Katharine Robinson, a UHM graduate assistant, said in the release.
The researchers believe the source of the moon's water is important for understanding the source of the Earth's. The team said two scenarios are most likely, but that it is possible for some combination of the two. First, the moon got its water from Earth during the impact that formed both and second, the moon got water from passing asteroids and comets.
Before a discovery in 2008, in which scientists first found evidence of water on the moon, it was assumed as early as the time of the Apollo astronauts the moon was void of water.
"This was consistent with the idea that blossomed during the Origin of the Moon conference in Kona in 1984 - that the Moon formed by a giant impact with the still-growing Earth, leading to extensive loss of volatile chemicals," Robinson said. "Our work is surprising because it shows that lunar formation and accretion were more complex than previously thought."
NASA is currently studying the moon's "lopsided shape and how it changes under the Earth's sway," the space agency reported in the press release. They are using data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), active since 2009, and the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission.
Combined with the recently decommissioned Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), the LRO and GRAIL have provided scientists with a wealth of knowledge on the moon.
