It has been revealed how water appeared on the Moon

Water on the Moon may have accumulated gradually over billions of years, rather than appearing as a result of a single major event, an international team of scientists has found.

As reported by BAKU.WS, the study was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Ice on the Moon has long been considered one of the great mysteries: its traces have been detected in craters near the south pole, but its origin remained unclear.

The new study shows that water likely accumulated gradually - over a period of 3 to 3.5 billion years. "It appears that the oldest craters contain the most ice. This means the process was nearly continuous," noted study co-author Paul Hayne.

The scientists ruled out the hypothesis that water appeared all at once, for example, after the impact of a large comet. Instead, several sources are being considered: ancient volcanism, which could have brought water from the Moon's interior to the surface, comets and asteroids, as well as solar wind, in which hydrogen interacts with the lunar surface and forms water. The ice is preserved in so-called "cold traps" - craters that are in permanent shadow and have not been illuminated by the Sun for billions of years.

Using data from NASA missions and modeling, the scientists determined that the oldest and longest-shadowed craters contain the greatest amount of ice. For example, Haworth crater near the Moon's south pole, which has been in shadow for over 3 billion years, may be one of the main water "reservoirs." The distribution of ice turned out to be uneven - this explains why some craters contain a lot of it while others have almost none.

According to lead author Oded Aharonson, understanding the origin of water on the Moon is important not only for science but also for future missions. Ice can be used as a source of drinking water and even fuel - by splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen.

Only direct investigations - analysis of samples from the Moon's surface or their delivery to Earth - will be able to definitively answer the question of water's origin.