Moon’s Water Puzzle Solved: Scientists Validate Decades-Old Theory with New Evidence

India's Chandrayaan mission surprised the world by discovering water on the moon and now scientists have finally discovered where this water came from? A new research led by NASA has confirmed that the Sun's solar wind is an important source of water on the moon.

Lunar Mystery Unraveled

Since the 1960s, scientists have been assuming that charged particles emanating from the Sun can initiate chemical reactions on the surface of the Moon and create water molecules. Now this theory has been validated after accurate laboratory tests in recent research.

Origin of Lunar Water Cracked

NASA scientists Lee Hsiao and Jason McLane designed a special experiment chamber for this, in which a vacuum environment like that of the moon was created. In this experiment, artificial solar wind was blown on the moon soil samples brought from the Apollo 17 mission. Before this, they heated these samples and completely removed the moisture of the earth, so that the results remain pure.

Water on the Moon Explained

In just a few days, they showed that this solar wind can have an impact equivalent to about 80,000 years. The tests found an infrared signature near 3 microns—evidence of the formation of hydroxyl (OH) and water (H₂O).

The importance of this research by NASA also increases because it can accelerate their Artemis program, under which there is a plan to establish human presence on the south pole of the Moon. It is believed that water is present in the form of frozen ice in the craters with permanent shadow in this part of the Moon.

Researchers say that water on the moon may not be an old heritage, but an element that is constantly being created and recycled through the solar wind. This discovery can provide a big basis for the possibilities of life and fuel production on the moon in the future. Scientist Yo said, "It is exciting to know that water can be created with the help of only lunar soil and hydrogen coming from the sun."