Dry Again: New Analysis of Apollo Moon Rocks Points to a Largely Waterless Lunar Inte

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The moon, our nearest celestial neighbor, still carries its share of mysteries, especially when it comes to the role of water in its past and present. Just last year a surprising series of studies indicated that the lunar surface is dusted with water molecules ; another much-heralded experiment showed that at least some polar craters on the moon appear to be lined with water ice. Those stores of ice would be valuable resources to future moon visitors, who could count on a local source of water for an extended stay on the lunar surface.


But with the surface of the moon looking more watery all the time, a debate rages on over the influence of water dozens of kilometers below the surface, in the lunar mantle. The presence or absence of water in the mantle helps to constrain the moon's geologic history, stretching all the way back to the time that a planet-size object collided with Earth, producing a debris cloud that coalesced into the moon, as the prevailing view holds. When the lunar samples from the Apollo manned landings arrived on Earth, geologists noticed an interesting discrepancy between the two bodies--the lunar specimens appeared to be highly depleted in volatiles such as water. There are multiple explanations for why the moon and Earth should be so different in that regard, and with better understanding of the moon's composition may come greater knowledge of its formation and evolution. [More] (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=moon-anhydrous-water)

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