New evidence for water lurking under the moon’s poles
We tend to think of the moon as a cold, dusty rock, but in fact, its surface can get pretty hot during a lunar day. How hot? It turns out that the answer can vary dramatically over a very short distance. When the Chandrayaan-3 mission touched down on the moon in August 2023, one of the first things it did was measure the surface temperature. The results—detailed in a study published March 6 in the journal Communications Earth and Environment—were both unexpected and intriguing. They also raise tantalizing implications for the biggest lunar question of all: how much water is up there? During the Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE), the spacecraft took the first measurements of this kind since those taken by the Apollo missions over half a century ago. While Apollo landed near the moon’s equator, Chandrayaan touched down at a latitude of 69 degrees north—well into the moon’s previously unexplored...