Despite all appearances, the moon is a world with water. Strewn throughout the soil, water molecules are scattered all around the moon’s surface. Where they originated has long stumped scientists, but a new paper published in PNAS has looked into the origins of the moon’s hydration, suggesting that it may have come from a complex combination of sources.
“This is a major step forward in unraveling where lunar water comes from,” said Maxwell Thiemens, a study author and a researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in a press release. “Our data suggest that the moon inherited water tracing back to Earth’s formation, followed by later contributions from comets, delivering the water reservoirs we see today.”
