​The surface of the moon contains water in “glass balls” that formed as a result of strong collisions with space rocks, according to a study based on samples taken by the Chinese lunar probe Chang’e 5, AFP and Reuters reported, citing Agerpres.

“There is no doubt that most of the lunar surface contains water in one form or another,” said the study, signed by Chinese researchers and published Monday in Nature Geoscience.

Scientists have examined in detail about a hundred tiny glass balls, ranging in size from a hair to a millimeter, that were brought to Earth in 2020 by the Chang’e 5 mission. These formations, which are up to two billion years old, were created by the impact of meteoroids – meteorites or asteroids – that melted monthly material

The samples contain up to two millionths of a gram of water equivalent per gram of sphere. This water comes from other processes than that resulting from lunar volcanism or cometary falls (which contain ice).

The team, led by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that the glass spheres formed when the meteorite hit first lost most of their water. They would then be bombarded by solar winds, supplying them with hydrogen, which would then combine with the oxygen atoms contained in these formations, thus forming water molecules.

What Chinese researchers say about the new source of water discovered on the moon

“The Moon is constantly bombarded by impactors, such as micrometeoroids and large meteoroids, which create shock glass balls during high-energy rapid heating,” said planetary scientist Sheng Hu of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, co-author of the study published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Lunar soil consists of 3-5% glass spheres, according to estimates based on the study of soil samples brought back by the American Apollo missions.

“Water is the most sought-after product for sustainable exploration of planetary surfaces. “Knowing how water is produced, stored and replenished near the lunar surface will be very useful for future researchers who can mine it and use it for research,” Hu said.

The study concludes that these glass spheres may be the “dominant reservoir” involved in the lunar water cycle. A reservoir that could be “used in situ in future lunar exploration,” especially since that water would be “fairly easy to extract,” according to Chinese researchers.

“We can simply heat these glass balls to release the water stored in them,” said planetary scientist and study co-author Hejiu Hui of Nanjing University in China.

Americans are more interested in frozen water on the moon

Meanwhile, the Americans are focusing on sources of water in the form of ice, the existence of which has been confirmed at the south pole of the moon and which could be turned into fuel.

The American space agency NASA has planned a mission with the VIPER robot for 2024 to study the concentration of ice in this region. A capsule that delivered lunar soil samples to Earth has landed in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China.

About 1.7 kg of soil was collected during the Chang’e-5 mission, with 32 glass spheres analyzed in this study from the small amount of soil available for this study, Hu said.

The Chang’e-5 mission was the first to collect samples of lunar soil since the Soviet Union brought about 170 grams of soil back to Earth in 1976.

The United States managed to retrieve 382 kg of samples from the lunar surface during the Apollo program, from 1969 to 1972.

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