News: DEEP SECRET

100 times more water

on Moon than thought

Washington: Moon has hundred times more water than was previously thought, and it could be widespread deep under its surface, planetary scientists have claimed.

        A US-led team has based its findings on an analysis of the mineral apatite in lunar rocks picked up by Apollo space missions and in lunar meteorite found in Africa and say that there is at least 100 times more water in the Moon's minerals that was previously believed.

        "Water may be ubiquitous within the lunar interior," the planetary scientists wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "For over 40 years we thought the Moon was dry. We found that the minimum water content ranged from 64 parts per billion to 5 parts per million - at least two orders of magnitude greater than previous results," Francis McCubbin of Carnegie Institution of Washington, who led the team , sai." We can now finally begin to consider the implications and the origin of water in the interior of the Moon."

c          According to him, the water is not immediately accessible - it is incorporated in the rocky interior of the Moon.