Today, researchers announced that they've found water molecules in moon matter retrieved by NASA Apollo missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The water was coaxed out of volcanic glass pebbles (like those seen here). From National Geographic:
The researchers believe the water was ejected along with magma when "fire fountains" erupted more than three billion years ago from the moon's surface.The finding raises new questions about the long-standing "giant impact" theory, which holds that the moon was formed more than a billion years prior to that when a Mars-sized body slammed into Earth and sent debris into orbit.
Researchers once believed the impact was hot enough and long enough to vaporize volatile elements, including the building blocks of water.
The new study "puts some limits on how hot this planet was and how quickly the volatile elements condensed back into the solid," said study lead author Alberto Saal, a geologist at Brown University.
Water on the moon (National Geographic)
