14 DAY TRIAL // Columbia University astrophysicist Arlin Crotts has been involved in a number of theoretical studies over the years predicting the existence of water on the Moon, something that was only accurately confirmed less than a month ago. In one of his latest works, written together with graduate student Cameron Hummels, and sent for publication to the Astrophysical Journal, the scientist argues that widespread water exists on the lunar surface, and he also provides an explanation for how it got there, Space reports.
“I am predicting something that just happened, that nobody else was predicting. I hope people recognize that this is a true prediction of the spatial distribution of water around the moon,” the expert says. Recently, when three independent lunar probes confirmed the existence of water on the Earth's natural satellite, most scientists were surprised, because they thought it was bone-dry. However, Crotts was not one of them, as his models have shown this to be a possibility for quite some time now.
Data collected from the space probes, confirming the existence of water molecules all over the Moon's surface, appear in three papers, published in the September 25 issue of the top journal Science. Until then, astronomers believed that traces of water-ice might have only existed in the shadowed craters at the Moon's poles, which were also determined to be among the coolest places in the solar system.
Speaking about his new theory, the scientist tells Space that, “We now know that there's water in the interior. There's no particular reason to think that it doesn't get out.” He believes that water has remained trapped inside minerals under the lunar surface, and that, in order to escape the elevated pressure of the core, the molecules are being pushed upwards through fissures, alongside other gases. A 2008 study seems to confirm that, having identified water molecules, between 260 and 745 parts per million, in lunar lava brought back by Apollo astronauts.
However, not everyone is in agreement with Crotts about water in the lunar crust. “I feel that it is highly unlikely that there are significant amounts of water remaining in the moon's interior at this time. The amounts of water found are at the parts per million level, and as such constitute only a very small amount of water as a resource,” Mount Holyoke College expert Darby Dyar, a co-author of one of the Science papers recently showing there is water on the lunar surface, adds.