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Asteroids may have slammed into the Moon, bringing water to its then molten surface, according to a new study.
The research suggests water found inside the Moon was 'dumped' on the satellite around 4.5 billion years ago, when molten oceans were hit by asteroids carrying water.
Samples of volcanic rock from the Moon's surface, gathered from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, were compared with other rocks from space and then analysed for traces of water. There was around a 0.001 per cent trace of water in the Moon's rocks - heavier than samples from other lunar rocks.
Although the topic is disputed, the Moon is thought to be around 4.5 billion years old, and formed after a collision with the Earth. It was during these nascent years that the satellite was covered in magma and volcanoes - and when the carbonaceous chondrite asteroids are believed to have hit.
The researchers, from the Open University, said the water beneath the Moon's surface could have become trapped underneath magma once the asteroids had hit and they hope the research may shed light on a long-debated argument of how water arrived on the Moon.
"Until now, the timing and nature of the delivery of water to the Moon, and the relative contributions of asteroidal and cometary sources, have not been clear," the team wrote in the journal.
"In this model, comets and asteroids collided with the magma ocean on the Moon, and a thermal lid - which formed at the surface of the magma ocean - prevented loss of volatiles such as water through degassing to space, allowing water to be retained in the Moon's interior."
The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
