Global map of lunar hydrogen: Data confirms role water played in moon's formation



The first comprehensive map of hydrogen abundances on the surface of the Moon has been created by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, using data gathered more than 20 years ago. The map indicates two categories of lunar minerals with elevated hydrogen and supports earlier hypotheses concerning lunar hydrogen and water, including the conclusion that water was probably involved in the first magma-ocean creation and solidification of the Moon.

The orbital neutron data from the Lunar Prospector mission were utilized by NASA Ames Research Center's Rick Elphic, David Lawrence, Patrick Peplowski, and Jack Wilson to create their map. Before it crashed into the lunar surface, the probe, which NASA launched in 1998, orbited the Moon for a year and a half and returned the first direct evidence of elevated hydrogen near the lunar poles.

Cosmic rays, or high-energy protons and neutrons that travel across space at almost the speed of light, are produced when stars explode. These cosmic rays split the atoms that are present on the surface of a planet or a moon, launching protons and neutrons into the air. By observing the mobility of those protons and neutrons, scientists may identify an element and establish where and how much of it is present.

"Consider playing a game of pool where the billiard balls are hydrogen and the cue ball is a representation of neutrons," said Lawrence. "Because both the cue ball and the billiard ball have the same mass, when you hit a billiard ball with it, the billiard ball is forced into motion and the cue ball stops moving. Similar to this, when a neutron interacts with hydrogen, it perishes and loses velocity, while hydrogen is propelled into motion. So it's a sign of hydrogen presence when we observe fewer neutrons traveling around."

The Neutron Spectrometer, one of five instruments installed aboard Lunar Prospector to complete gravitational and compositional maps of the Moon, was one of five instruments used to calibrate the data to quantify the quantity of hydrogen by the proportional drop in neutrons observed by the device. The Journal of Geophysical Research reported the results.

In order to ultimately put together a complete picture of lunar hydrogen for the first time, Lawrence explained, "we were able to merge data from lunar soil samples from the Apollo missions with what we've detected from space.

Two different types of lunar materials have elevated hydrogen, according to the team's map. The greatest pyroclastic deposit on the Moon is located in the first, on the Aristarchus Plateau. These deposits, which are pieces of volcanic rock, support earlier findings suggesting hydrogen and/or water had a part in lunar magmatic processes. Second are rocks of the KREEP type. KREEP, which stands for potassium (K), rare earth elements (REE), and phosphorus, is an abbreviation for lunar lava rock (P).

According to Lawrence, the Moon was molten debris from a significant impact with Earth when it first formed. The final sort of material to crystallize and become hard is believed to be KREEP. As it cooled, minerals crystallized out of the melt.

Building on previous work to create a comprehensive image of Earth's nearest neighbor required time, according to Lawrence, who was a member of the original team that examined the initial data from the Lunar Prospector mission in 1998.

It took several years to complete the analysis, according to Lawrence. "We started going over everything and started correcting data that we found wasn't hydrogen. We went back and adjusted earlier studies, and a lot of it was made possible by learnings from preceding missions. We are always expanding on our prior understanding and foraying into uncharted area."

This new map not only completes the list of hydrogen on the Moon, but it may also enable scientists to estimate how much water and hydrogen were in the Moon at the time of its formation. APL scientists used information from the neutron spectrometer aboard the APL-built MESSENGER mission in 2013 to establish the existence of water ice at Mercury's poles. These discoveries are crucial for planning future human exploration of the solar system as well as for comprehending the solar system.

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

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