WEBVTT - How Can Glass on the Moon Contain Water?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren vogelbomb Here. We sometimes forget that water has a recipe.

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<v Speaker 1>One atom of oxygen, two atoms of hydrogen. All water

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<v Speaker 1>was made somehow, and here on Earth. The same water

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<v Speaker 1>has been knocking around our old planet for billions of

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<v Speaker 1>years thanks to our water cycle. But water exists in

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<v Speaker 1>other places too, anywhere oxygen and hydrogen atoms have the

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<v Speaker 1>chance to find one another. The trick is, if other

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<v Speaker 1>objects in space are going to keep their water, they've

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<v Speaker 1>got to have a way to hold on to it.

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<v Speaker 1>Not everybody has a fabulous atmosphere like Earth. Chinese researchers

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<v Speaker 1>have recently discovered that our moon has a vast store

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<v Speaker 1>of water, probably upwards of three hundred and thirty billion

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<v Speaker 1>tons of it, all hidden away under and in the

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<v Speaker 1>lunar soil. In the March twenty twenty three edition of

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<v Speaker 1>the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers reported that tiny, rough

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<v Speaker 1>glass beads holding on to droplets of water can be

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<v Speaker 1>found all over the Moon. Some of these beads were

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<v Speaker 1>collected in December of twenty twenty by China's Chang of five,

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<v Speaker 1>a robotic spacecraft sent to the Moon's surface to collect

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<v Speaker 1>rock and soil. In collecting these samples, researchers found that

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<v Speaker 1>the surface of the Moon is uniformly littered with tiny

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<v Speaker 1>glass beads. The scientific name for these is microtechtites. These

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<v Speaker 1>grains of glass measuring less than a millimeter across were

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<v Speaker 1>created by the meteorites big and small, that are constantly

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<v Speaker 1>bombarding the Moon's surface, exploding molten chunks of lunar crust

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<v Speaker 1>far into the air, such as it is a while

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<v Speaker 1>hanging out in a red hot soil plume, some of

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<v Speaker 1>the material cools into these tiny silica spheres. While drifting

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<v Speaker 1>through the thin lunar atmosphere, the beads come into contact

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<v Speaker 1>with solar winds. From that name, you might assume that

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<v Speaker 1>solar winds are pleasantly warm and mild. They're actually relentless

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<v Speaker 1>blasts of plasma as hot as a million degrees celsius,

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<v Speaker 1>made up of energized electrons and protons, screaming through space

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<v Speaker 1>at nine hundred kilometers a second. I usually try to

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<v Speaker 1>report numbers in both metric and imperial, but suffice it

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<v Speaker 1>to say in this case that in Imperial this is

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<v Speaker 1>also hot and fast, and this wind contains, among other things,

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<v Speaker 1>hydrogen nuclei. Lunar soil contains some oxygen, and when it

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<v Speaker 1>combines with the hydrogen in the solar wind, that creates

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<v Speaker 1>water and tiny bits of this water diffuse into the

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<v Speaker 1>glass beads before they drop back to the surface of

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<v Speaker 1>the Moon. But okay, could this water be harvested? In short, yes,

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<v Speaker 1>the water isn't locked in indefinitely. The researchers suggest that

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<v Speaker 1>the spheres get covered over lunar dust, where water diffuses

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<v Speaker 1>in and out of the beads over the course of years,

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<v Speaker 1>creating something like a water cycle on the Moon. Releasing

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<v Speaker 1>the water could easily be done by collecting the spheres,

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<v Speaker 1>heating them up, and then collecting the resulting water vapor.

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<v Speaker 1>Collecting the beads might be difficult, but even if you

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<v Speaker 1>could collect all of them and harvest all of their water,

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<v Speaker 1>it still wouldn't be enough to support, say, a city

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<v Speaker 1>on the Moon. But the beads still interest scientists because

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<v Speaker 1>they represent relatively ready access to water that might eventually

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<v Speaker 1>help astronauts in emergency situations and for things such as

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<v Speaker 1>creating drinking water or making rocket fuel. Today's episode is

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<v Speaker 1>based on the article Moon's glass beads hold billions of

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<v Speaker 1>tons of water on how stuffworks dot com, written by

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<v Speaker 1>Jesslin Shields. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio

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<v Speaker 1>in partnership with hostufforks dot com and is produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the

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