月球上的"水"

在地球科学的各个领域中,在行星演化学和太空探索中,水都是不可缺少的元素。长久以来,我们一直认为月球是干燥的。然而最新的研究成果推翻了这个观点。近期的遥感探测和撞月实验表明,月球表面不仅含有结构水(OH和H₂O), 而且还有固态冰的存在。对月球火山玻璃和玄武岩的磷灰石重新分析也发现了这些玻璃中的OH,揭示了月球内部有水的存在。这个发现,意味着我们可能需要重新审视现有的月球火山活动和演化的模式。月表水和内部水的存在,还为未来以月球为跳板进行太空探索,提供了重要的资源。这里,我们对月表水和内部水的研究作一总结,并就这些发现的意义展开讨论。

Water on the Moon

Water plays an important role in nearly every aspect of geological processes as well as in the evolution of planetary bodies. Water is also an indispensible resource for human space exploration. The Moon has been regarded as "bone-dry" until recently. Several studies reported discovery of "water" on the surface and in the interior of the Moon. The presence of water in the Moon implies that our current understanding of the lunar differentiation needs to be revisited. The finding of water on the Moon also has profound implications for future space exploration, especially for the proposal of using the Moon as a jumping board to go to Mars and beyond. Here, we review recent reports of finding water on and in the Moon and their implications.