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Moon Earth Space Science

A New Study Shows the Moon's Interior Could Contain Water (npr.org) 69

Posted by BeauHD from the water-reservoir dept.
A new study from Brown University shows the moon might be flowing with more water than we thought, thanks to ancient volcanic deposits. NPR reports: Using satellite data, scientists from Brown University studied layers of rock on the moon that likely formed from large volcanic eruptions, called lunar pyroclastic deposits. The magma created by these eruptions has been carried to the moon's surface from very deep within its interior, the study showed. What's interesting about this new study, though, is that it shows the water is far more than just ice hiding in shadowy areas of the moon. In fact, there are likely pools of water in the moon's mantle, as well. If there's water in the moon's mantle, that suggests that the water was delivered to the moon very early in its formation, before it fully solidified, the study's lead author, Ralph Milliken told Space.com. Because the magma originally comes from deep within the lunar interior, Milliken explains, "the deep interior of the moon must also contain water."
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A New Study Shows the Moon's Interior Could Contain Water

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  • Or cheese (Score:3)

    by slashmydots ( 2189826 ) on Tuesday July 25, 2017 @02:31AM (#54872567)
    We recently found out there's a LOT of water under Earth's crust and WE LIVE HERE. At this point there could be basically anything on the moon. We don't have the technology to even start to speculate.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 )

      oh we have the technology.

      we just don't have an actual practical profitable reason to do it. really that's the gist of it.

      • Nope, with massive costs we got down to 12k meters and that was where our best drilling technology stopped to work. It might be plausible to get to 15k or so but not much deeper.

        Further down, you'd need to invent a whole new way of drilling.

        • I wonder if it isn't actually simpler to drill deeper on the Moon than it is on Earth.

          • The problem with drilling is the heat melts whatever you drill with. The moon also has a molten interior, but the moon's internals are much cooler than the Earth's so you could probably get significantly deeper.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by rbrander ( 73222 )

            Relates to rock pressures, so, yeah, six times deeper.

      • I would say both are true in this case. It is unlikely we'll be getting to the mantle of the earth or the moon anytime soon. We've barely reached the lower points of the surface of the Earth's crust and there is plenty of profitable incentive to reach the resources we believe are contained there.

      • Oh, we have the technology.

        Unfortunately, we spent all the budget on Steve Austin.

  • Moon Could Contain Oil (Score:5, Funny)

    by mentil ( 1748130 ) on Tuesday July 25, 2017 @02:33AM (#54872577)

    All we need is a report that the Moon contains oil and the tech will be devised to send the full force of the US military's might to the Moon, to liberate it from its oppressors. Once millions of soldiers and their supporting infrastructure and supply lines are established, they will realize there's no oil, establish a colony, and use said weapons to secure independence. Mission accomplished!

  • Moon is a part of Earth (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Since the scientific consensus is that the moon was scooped out of the Pacific Ocean by a collision with a planet sized body, this should not be all that surprising.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Since the scientific consensus is that the moon was scooped out of the Pacific Ocean .

      That's not true. The floor of the Pacific is very young (200M years), and the moon was formed out of mantle, not crust.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • When I was a kid I had an encyclopaedia with that theory in it. It also had the "near miss with another star" theory for planet formation.

        I'll add that it didn't have Pluto as a planet - not due to politics but because Pluto hadn't been discovered when it was written.

        • An excellent example of why we don't use stone tablets to record scientific knowledge.

          • I had a friend who was into old atlases. He had one from the early 1900s - in 1995 it was more accurate than one made 10 years earlier.

            • A broken clock is right twice a day. The river near me has changed enough in the last 50 years that the county maps do not show the exact path of the river relative to my property line. The physical world is constantly changing, and information that is even a few decades old should be checked for accuracy, let alone information that is two millennium old.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday July 25, 2017 @03:37AM (#54872749)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Eruption of magma is a great sign of water..
  • Contain cheese. There are conflicting reports.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      For a long time us humans thought the moon was made of cheese.

      Then in the late 1960's we landed there and found it was NOT made of cheese.

      We haven't been back since then.

      Behold the power of cheese!

  • A study shows (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    my hypothesis correct, hypotheses today are referred to by ignoramuses as 'studies'.

  • Perhaps this is where God took all the water from the great flood
  • the next great hipster beverage

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