1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:13,480 Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbomb Here. We sometimes forget that water has a recipe. 3 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:17,800 Speaker 1: One atom of oxygen, two atoms of hydrogen. All water 4 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:21,360 Speaker 1: was made somehow, and here on Earth. The same water 5 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:24,239 Speaker 1: has been knocking around our old planet for billions of 6 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:28,400 Speaker 1: years thanks to our water cycle. But water exists in 7 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:31,920 Speaker 1: other places too, anywhere oxygen and hydrogen atoms have the 8 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,440 Speaker 1: chance to find one another. The trick is, if other 9 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:38,840 Speaker 1: objects in space are going to keep their water, they've 10 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:40,519 Speaker 1: got to have a way to hold on to it. 11 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:46,800 Speaker 1: Not everybody has a fabulous atmosphere like Earth. Chinese researchers 12 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:50,240 Speaker 1: have recently discovered that our moon has a vast store 13 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:53,800 Speaker 1: of water, probably upwards of three hundred and thirty billion 14 00:00:53,880 --> 00:00:57,520 Speaker 1: tons of it, all hidden away under and in the 15 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:02,640 Speaker 1: lunar soil. In the March twenty twenty three edition of 16 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers reported that tiny, rough 17 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: glass beads holding on to droplets of water can be 18 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:13,480 Speaker 1: found all over the Moon. Some of these beads were 19 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:17,000 Speaker 1: collected in December of twenty twenty by China's Chang of five, 20 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:20,200 Speaker 1: a robotic spacecraft sent to the Moon's surface to collect 21 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:25,000 Speaker 1: rock and soil. In collecting these samples, researchers found that 22 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:28,279 Speaker 1: the surface of the Moon is uniformly littered with tiny 23 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:33,559 Speaker 1: glass beads. The scientific name for these is microtechtites. These 24 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:37,080 Speaker 1: grains of glass measuring less than a millimeter across were 25 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 1: created by the meteorites big and small, that are constantly 26 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:45,039 Speaker 1: bombarding the Moon's surface, exploding molten chunks of lunar crust 27 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 1: far into the air, such as it is a while 28 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:51,080 Speaker 1: hanging out in a red hot soil plume, some of 29 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:57,880 Speaker 1: the material cools into these tiny silica spheres. While drifting 30 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:01,400 Speaker 1: through the thin lunar atmosphere, the beads come into contact 31 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:05,000 Speaker 1: with solar winds. From that name, you might assume that 32 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:09,840 Speaker 1: solar winds are pleasantly warm and mild. They're actually relentless 33 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:13,239 Speaker 1: blasts of plasma as hot as a million degrees celsius, 34 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:16,919 Speaker 1: made up of energized electrons and protons, screaming through space 35 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:20,919 Speaker 1: at nine hundred kilometers a second. I usually try to 36 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:23,760 Speaker 1: report numbers in both metric and imperial, but suffice it 37 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,160 Speaker 1: to say in this case that in Imperial this is 38 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:33,560 Speaker 1: also hot and fast, and this wind contains, among other things, 39 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:38,800 Speaker 1: hydrogen nuclei. Lunar soil contains some oxygen, and when it 40 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:42,120 Speaker 1: combines with the hydrogen in the solar wind, that creates 41 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:45,600 Speaker 1: water and tiny bits of this water diffuse into the 42 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:48,359 Speaker 1: glass beads before they drop back to the surface of 43 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:57,840 Speaker 1: the Moon. But okay, could this water be harvested? In short, yes, 44 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:02,960 Speaker 1: the water isn't locked in indefinitely. The researchers suggest that 45 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,120 Speaker 1: the spheres get covered over lunar dust, where water diffuses 46 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:09,400 Speaker 1: in and out of the beads over the course of years, 47 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 1: creating something like a water cycle on the Moon. Releasing 48 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:16,639 Speaker 1: the water could easily be done by collecting the spheres, 49 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:19,600 Speaker 1: heating them up, and then collecting the resulting water vapor. 50 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:23,720 Speaker 1: Collecting the beads might be difficult, but even if you 51 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:26,919 Speaker 1: could collect all of them and harvest all of their water, 52 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:30,000 Speaker 1: it still wouldn't be enough to support, say, a city 53 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:34,400 Speaker 1: on the Moon. But the beads still interest scientists because 54 00:03:34,440 --> 00:03:38,520 Speaker 1: they represent relatively ready access to water that might eventually 55 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:42,360 Speaker 1: help astronauts in emergency situations and for things such as 56 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 1: creating drinking water or making rocket fuel. Today's episode is 57 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:54,400 Speaker 1: based on the article Moon's glass beads hold billions of 58 00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:56,920 Speaker 1: tons of water on how stuffworks dot com, written by 59 00:03:56,960 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: Jesslin Shields. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio 60 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:02,600 Speaker 1: in partnership with hostufforks dot com and is produced by 61 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:06,160 Speaker 1: Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the 62 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:09,280 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 63 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:10,040 Speaker 1: favorite shows.