The idea of water coming from some vast bombardment of comets at just the right time sounded really implausible to me too. But the solar system is so old, who knows.
Of course, one doesn't need comets or meteorites or whatever. One can get water from the solar wind.
https://www.space.com/27377-moon-water-origin-solar-wind.html
The universe is very often richer and more interesting than we imagine.
(Of course, the picture may change yet again as more is learned. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Of course, one doesn't need comets or meteorites or whatever. One can get water from the solar wind.
https://www.space.com/27377-moon-water-origin-solar-wind.html
The researchers expected to find water from chondrites in the interiors of the lunar dust grains and water from both chondrites and the solar wind in the exteriors or rims of these grains. Surprisingly, the water in both the interiors and exteriors of these dust grains apparently originated mainly from the solar wind.
"We do not find any chondritic signature," lead study author Alice Stephant, a cosmochemist at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, told Space.com.
These findings suggest that any water that cosmic impacts bring to the moon is not retained much. At most, an average of 15 percent of the hydrogen in lunar soil may come from chondritic water, the researchers said.
The universe is very often richer and more interesting than we imagine.
(Of course, the picture may change yet again as more is learned. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.