{"id":154033,"date":"2022-01-10T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T18:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=154033"},"modified":"2022-01-11T16:36:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T02:36:13","slug":"water-on-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/01\/10\/water-on-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Water on the Moon; team confirms with ground equipment"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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View of the Chang\u2019E-5 landing site. (Photo credit: Chang\u2019E-5)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first on-the-ground detection of water on the Moon\u2019s surface was reported by an international team of researchers, including Shuai Li<\/strong>, a planetary geologist at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa. Understanding the concentrations and distributions of water on the Moon is critical to understanding its formation and evolution, and to providing water resources for future human exploration.<\/p>\n

Li along with Honglei Lin and Rui Xu, both scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led the study to analyze spectrometer data from the Chinese Chang\u2019E-5 lunar lander that visited the Moon in 2020. Previous research provided evidence of lunar surface water based on sensors orbiting the Moon or measurements of water molecules in samples returned to Earth. The new study, published in Science Advances<\/em><\/a>, reported the first in-situ measurements of water on the lunar surface and confirms past observations.<\/p>\n

The Chang\u2019E-5 lander was equipped with a spectrometer, a scientific instrument that receives reflected sunlight from the lunar surface and, depending on how the light is absorbed or reflected, can indicate the mineralogy and water content of the surface materials. The spectrometer onboard the lander performed measurements of the landscape and a rock, providing the unprecedented opportunity to detect lunar surface water.<\/p>\n

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Location of lunar sample return sites: Apollo missions are U.S. Luna missions are Soviet Union.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We analyzed the reflectance data from the spectrometer onboard the lander using similar methods that had been used in my previous studies to understand the distribution and origins of water on the Moon,” said Li, who is an assistant researcher at the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Geophysics and Planetology<\/a> in the UH<\/abbr> Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related UH<\/abbr> News<\/em> stories:<\/p>\n