Is the Moon the First New Home for Humans Beyond Earth?

This hypothesis was put forward after scientists announced that they had just found evidence in a lunar meteorite that suggests there may be water on the surface of the Moon.

According to phys.org, the new discovery was published by a research team from Tohoku University, Japan on the science page.Science Advances.

Accordingly, they found traces of a rare mineral called moganite in a lunar meteorite found 13 years ago in Northwest Africa.

Mogamite is a quartz-like crystal that forms through the evaporation of water. Its presence in lunar meteorites is therefore believed to be new evidence of water ice beneath the moon's surface.

Scientists have long believed that water exists at the North and South poles of the moon. But the new discovery raises hopes that frozen water may exist beneath many areas of the moon.

According to the Japanese research team, they believe moganite formed in a region called the Procellarum Terrane on the moon, and water may have existed long before it was evaporated by the intense sunlight.

But it's possible that the water hidden beneath the moon's surface has yet to evaporate, protected from strong sunlight.

“For the first time, we were able to prove that there is water ice in lunar material,” Masahiro Kayama, who led the study, told Space.com.

Kayama believes that water may have been delivered to the moon by asteroids and comets about 3 billion years ago.

Then, for a short time, water may have existed on the lunar surface before seeping down.

The team leader also believes that many years later, a comet may have collided with the moon, sending lunar meteorites flying into space and then crashing to the ground.