Moon was earlier thought to be that dry and barren satellite of Earth, but recent findings suggest that it may have a lot more water in its interiors than we ever thought. If true, this can turn our dream of inhabiting on Moon, very possible!

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Since years, moon was thought to be bone-dry but in recent years, traces of water were found trapped in lunar volcanic glass Beads which were formed due to magma ejection from the bowels of moon. This gave scientists an idea that there might be some amount of water in the interiors of moon but researchers at Brown University in US have something way more amazing. They decided to re-examine those lunar glass beads which were brought by Apollo 15 and 17 missions in 1970s; and what they found is so very superb that it could actually fulfil our dream of making Moon a home.

The tiny crystalline formations found in the lunar glass beads revealed that they actually just as rich in water as those traces found in some of the volcanic terrains of Earth, like Hawaii. Which somehow implies that there is a hell lot of water deep down inside Moon in form of crystalline beads which are millions of years old. And guess what, this certainly takes us one step closer to building our homes on the nearest celestial body – our own little Moon. But hey, don’t be overzealous about it, there is one ‘but’ factor.

Here’s the but – the beads found by Apollo astronauts were formed by magma and had burst up and crystallized a billion years ago but the key thing is distribution of these beads across the moon surface is unknown. They may be spread in huge quantities or may not be and that is why it is just hard to know how much is there. It could be way less than we think or way more that we think and if it is the latter case, then extracting this water will make the moon a self-sustaining place to live in!

The only thing we need to find is that how much amount of these beads are found on Moon and that will be a judgemental finding. The prime topic of research for next manned lunar mission will be looking for those tiny, very tiny glass beads which are orange in colour. They store water in form of crystals instead of liquid and the beads are one of the finest elements brought from moon which size around 20 to 45 microns, about the same size as the particles that compose silt on Earth. But this still means that there could be lots and lots of water and we could live on Mooooon! Yay!

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