The early moon was rich in water

Water on the moon? The idea may seem completely far-fetched. And for good reason, all the samples brought back by the missions ApolloApollo It showed the almost complete absence of volatile elements in lunar rocks. Thanks to new analyses, we now know that the Moon is not as barren as we previously thought, and that it also contains huge amounts of water, trapped inside microscopic glass beads.

Iron anorthosite, the remains of a lunar magma ocean

A new study has now revealed that water has always been present on the Moon, especially shortly after its formation. We must remember that the Moon was formed about 4.5 billion years ago after a giant collision between a small planet and the Earth. The material ejected into space will quickly reshape itself to form our natural satellite.

ball The son-in-lawThe son-in-lawThe Moon will then begin to cool, leading to the crystallization of the first crust. Fortunately, some slivers of this ShellShell It reached us thanks to meteorites. It is composed ofAnorthositeAnorthosite Ferroennes, which has the peculiarity of not having apatite, a MineralMineral Which contain volatile elements. Well, that's what we thought.

The Primordial Moon is not barren at all

Because for the first time, researchers have identified apatite within a meteorite that is part of the iron anorthosite group. These results were published In the magazine Nature astronomyTherefore, the researchers suggest that the primordial Moon was much less devoid of volatile elements, especially water, than previously thought.