Thread by @BiIndia

#WaterOnTheMoon | The moon is sprinkled with patches of frozen water, #NASA scientists discovered. Mining it may be crucial for travel to Mars and beyond.

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.@NASA scientists have discovered caches of water hidden across the #moon's surface. Water could be a crucial resource for astronaut missions to #Mars, since ice can be converted into rocket fuel.

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In a new study, a space plane detected the signal for H2O on the #moon. Other new research found small, permanent shadows where water ice could survive on the lunar surface. @NASA's next moon rover is designed to investigate water-rich regions of the moon.

#WaterOnTheMoon

Until now, @NASA didn't know how much water could be available on the moon or how easy it would be to mine. But two papers published in the journal Nature Astronomy on Monday make the future of lunar ice mining much brighter.

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One of the studies confirmed the presence of molecular water in the #moon's surface dust for the first time. The other identified tens of billions of small, cold regions in shadows across the moon where the sun never shines and ice rests on the surface.

#WaterOnTheMoon

Experts had long thought the #moon wouldn't be a safe place for water, since it has no atmosphere to shield its surface from the sun's radiation. But scientists and their spacecraft have been picking up telltale signs of lunar water for the past three decades.

#WaterOnTheMoon

First, they found hydrogen lingering over the poles. Then traces of water appeared in lunar-rock samples from the #Apollo missions. Later, the #Cassini spacecraft picked up signals of water as it glanced at the moon on its way to Saturn.

#WaterOnTheMoon

Finally, in 2018, scientists confirmed that water ice was sitting on the surface of the #moon's poles. These reservoirs lie in shadowed regions called "cold traps" that sunlight can't reach.

#WaterOnTheMoon

To find out whether the moon harbors molecular water or hydroxyl, #Honniball hopped on a space plane. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (#SOFIA) is a converted Boeing 747 souped up with a 2.7-meter telescope and the ability to fly into the stratosphere.

But in digging through thousands of photos from @NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a group of researchers found smaller regions of permanent shadow littering the #moon's surface. "If there's water in these larger cold traps, then there should be water in the smaller ones too."