Moon's interior may contain water, Brown University scientists say

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

Moon's interior may contain water, Brown University scientists say

By Ralph Ellis, CNN
Updated 11:07 PM ET, Mon July 24, 2017

(CNN) — There may be water -- a good bit of it -- deep inside the moon, scientists at Brown University say.

By analyzing satellite images, the scientists found evidence of water trapped in "glass beads" in ancient ash and rocks that volcanoes spewed across the surface of the moon, said Ralph Milliken, lead author of the new research, published in Nature Geoscience, and an associate professor in Brown's Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences.

"The fact that nearly all of them (the volcanic deposits) exhibit signatures of water suggests ... that the bulk interior of the moon is wet," he said in a news release.

This finding might be a boon for future missions to the moon because water could potentially be extracted from the volcanic deposits, Milliken told CNN.

Though the volcanic glass beads don't contain much water -- maybe a few hundred parts per million -- there's a great deal of the volcanic material to work with, Millliken told CNN. Some fields of this volcanic refuse cover thousands of square kilometers and may be several kilometers deep, he said.

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Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/24/us/moon-water-study/index.html

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Related: Remote detection of widespread indigenous waterin lunar pyroclastic deposits (Nature Geoscience)

[cstanleytech]

2. Not unless they can find a way to easily get a decent amount.

[cstanleytech]

4. I was thinking more along the cost to refine/mine enough of it

and in a reasonable amount of time plus there is the issue of getting the equipment up there to do it.