An analysis of sediments brought back by the Apollo 17 mission has shown that the Moon's interior holds far more water than previously thought, reports Jason Palmer for the BBC News.
The study found 100 times more water in the beads than has been measured before, and suggests that the Moon once held a Caribbean Sea-sized volume of water while casting doubt on aspects of theories of how the Moon first formed.
It is widely thought that a Mars-sized object slammed into the Earth just as it was forming, throwing out a disc of fragmented, molten material that eventually coalesced into the Moon. Nonetheless, the new study is beginning to shedding light on how much water is contained in the Moon's interior, which in turn gives hints as to how - and from what - it formed.
The study found 100 times more water in the beads than has been measured before, and suggests that the Moon once held a Caribbean Sea-sized volume of water while casting doubt on aspects of theories of how the Moon first formed.
It is widely thought that a Mars-sized object slammed into the Earth just as it was forming, throwing out a disc of fragmented, molten material that eventually coalesced into the Moon. Nonetheless, the new study is beginning to shedding light on how much water is contained in the Moon's interior, which in turn gives hints as to how - and from what - it formed.
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