Astronomers Confirmed The Presence of Water on The Sunlit Surface of The Moon
A spacecraft of NASA(National Aeronautics and Space Administration) named SOFIA has confirmed the presence of water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. Previously, Chandrayaan-1 mission of India had already confirmed the presence of water ice in cold and shadowed places of Moon. This is a key ingredient of sustaining life on the soil of Moon or to set up a base on the Moon.
Sofia is a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that allows scientists to investigate the solar system and also to look beyond in ways which is not possible for ground-based telescope. Sofia once helped to detect water in Clavius Crater which is located in Moon's southern hemisphere.
NASA said, "Data from this location reveals water in concentration of 100 to 412 parts per million – roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water – trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface. As a comparison, the Sahara desert has 100 times the amount of water than what Sofia detected in the lunar soil. Despite the small amounts, the discovery raises new questions about how water is created and how it persists on the harsh, airless lunar surface".
"We had indications that H2O might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon," said Paul Hertz, director of the astrophysics division in the science mission directorate at Nasa headquarters in Washington. "Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration."
This finding will definitely encourage NASA's Aretmis Mission which aims to send first woman and second man to the Moon by 2024 and set up a lunar base.
Nasa’s payload Moon Mineralogy Mapper and synthetic aperture radar Mini-SAR on board Chandrayaan-1 had detected traces of hydrogen-oxygen chemical bond.
Mini-SAR ha detected more than 40 small craters with water ice and the craters are 2km to 15km in diameter. Scientists's hope that there could be 1.3 trillion pounds or 600 million metric tons of water ice.
Just before crash Chandrayaan-1 also detected the presence of water. After that ISRO(The Indian Space Research Organization) launched Chandrayaan-2 in the south pole of the Moon to find the presence of water. Despite their effort Vikram lander of Chandrayeen-2 had also crashed . But the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is still active and is continuing its investigation of the Moon from an altitude of 100km.
In coming 1 to 2 years, ISRO will launch Chandrayaan-3 with the same goal of finding the presence of water.
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