{"id":115147,"date":"2020-10-27T08:22:45","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T15:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/nasas-sofia-discovers-water-on-sunlit-surface-of-moon"},"modified":"2020-10-27T08:22:45","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T15:22:45","slug":"nasas-sofia-discovers-water-on-sunlit-surface-of-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/nasas-sofia-discovers-water-on-sunlit-surface-of-moon","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s SOFIA Discovers Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/nasas-sofia-discovers-water-on-sunlit-surface-of-moon.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places.<\/p>\n<p>SOFIA has detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth, located in the Moon\u2019s southern hemisphere. Previous observations of the Moon\u2019s surface detected some form of hydrogen, but were unable to distinguish between water and its close chemical relative, hydroxyl (OH). Data from this location reveal water in concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million \u2013 roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water \u2013 trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41550-020-01222-x#_blank\">results are published<\/a> in the latest issue of Nature Astronomy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had indications that H2O \u2013 the familiar water we know \u2013 might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon,\u201d said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. \u201cNow we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA\u2019s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places. SOFIA has detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":465,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,219,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-physics","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/465"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}