China's sat finds source of water on Moon

Beijing: China's lunar lander Chang'e-5, which had earlier confirmed the presence of water on the Moon, has now determined its source on the lunar surface.

In 2020, Chang'e-5 delivered the first real-time, on-site definitive confirmation of water signal in the 11 basalt rocks and soil samples via on-board spectral analysis. Again in 2021, the finding was validated through laboratory analysis of eight samples the lander returned in 2021. Now, the Chang'e-5 team has determined where the water came from and published their results in the journal Nature Communications.

"For the first time in the world, the results of laboratory analysis of lunar return samples and spectral data from in-situ lunar surface surveys were used jointly to examine the presence, form and amount of 'water' in lunar samples," said LI Chunlai from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC).

"The results accurately answer the question of the distribution characteristics and source of water in the Chang'e-5 landing zone and provide a ground truth for the interpretation and estimation of water signals in remote sensing survey data," Chunlai added.