Moon still holds surprises as vast amounts of water found in glass beads in lunar soil

A new reservoir of water has been discovered on the surface of the moon hosted within beads of glass in lunar soil. This water was most likely formed by the solar wind, with the glass beads thought to be storing billions of tonnes of water. This discovery has important implications for a water cycle on the moon and the existence of water on other objects in the solar system.

The new study analyses glass beads extracted from lunar soil samples collected by the Chang’e 5 mission. Chang’e 5 was the Chinese Lunar Explorations Program’s fifth lunar mission and the first to return samples.