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Lunar soil hydration constrained by exospheric water liberated by meteoroid impacts

Stubbs, T. J.; Elphic, R. C.; Benna, M. +2 more

Analyses of samples from the Apollo missions suggest that the Moon formed devoid of native water. However, recent observations by Cassini, Deep Impact, Lunar Prospector and Chandrayaan-1 indicate the existence of an active water cycle on the Moon. Here we report observations of this water cycle, specifically detections of near-surface water releas…

Widespread distribution of OH/H₂O on the lunar surface inferred from spectral data

Edwards, Christopher S.; Bandfield, Joshua L.; Poston, Michael J. +1 more

Remote-sensing data from lunar orbiters have revealed spectral features consistent with the presence of OH or H₂O on the lunar surface. Analyses of data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper spectrometer onboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft have suggested that OH/H₂O is recycled on diurnal timescales and persists only at high latit…

Remote detection of widespread indigenous water in lunar pyroclastic deposits

Milliken, Ralph E.; Li, Shuai

Laboratory analyses of lunar samples provide a direct means to identify indigenous volatiles and have been used to argue for the presence of Earth-like water content in the lunar interior. Some volatile elements, however, have been interpreted as evidence for a bulk lunar mantle that is dry. Here we demonstrate that, for a number of lunar pyroclas…