{"id":250347,"date":"2026-01-25T00:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/250347\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T00:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:50:20","slug":"nasa-scientist-looked-into-50-year-old-moon-dirt-heres-what-he-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/250347\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Scientist Looked Into 50-Year-Old Moon Dirt, Here\u2019s What He Found"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clues buried in Moon dust are helping scientists revisit one of the oldest questions: where did Earth\u2019s water come from? For years, a dominant theory proposed that water-rich meteorites delivered vast amounts of water during the early stages of the Solar System\u2019s evolution. These meteorites, crashing into the young Earth, were thought to have been key contributors to the formation of Earth\u2019s oceans.<\/p>\n

But new research led by Tony Gargano, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center and the Lunar and Planetary Institute, challenges that view. The team analyzed regolith from Apollo lunar missions using a novel approach, providing the clearest evidence yet that the volume of water delivered by meteorites over the past four billion years is minimal. <\/p>\n

The Moon As An Impact Archive<\/p>\n

The Moon\u2019s surface<\/a> serves as a unique record of the Earth-Moon system\u2019s impact history. Unlike Earth, whose surface is constantly reshaped by tectonic activity and weather, the Moon retains a nearly untouched record of meteorite strikes. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe lunar regolith is one of the rare places we can still interpret a time-integrated record of what was hitting Earth\u2019s neighborhood for billions of years,\u201d said Tony Gargano<\/a>, <\/p>\n

As reported in NASA\u2019s statement<\/a>, to examine this record the researchers used triple oxygen isotope analysis, a method that focuses on oxygen, the dominant element in rocks, and one that is largely unaffected by impacts or external conditions. This approach allowed the team to isolate and identify meteorite material embedded in the Moon\u2019s surface, even after repeated bombardment and reworking of the soil. The analysis showed that only about 1% (by mass) of the regolith came from carbon-rich meteorites.<\/p>\n

\"OxygenOxygen isotope data from different types of lunar soil. Credit: PNAS<\/p>\n

Limited Water Contribution From Meteorites<\/p>\n

According to the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/a>, even under generous assumptions, meteorite delivery over the last four billion years could have supplied only a small fraction of the water found in Earth\u2019s oceans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The findings contradict the idea that late-stage meteorite impacts were a major source of Earth\u2019s water. NASA planetary scientist Justin Simon<\/a> explained: <\/p>\n

\u201cOur results don\u2019t say meteorites delivered no water\u2026 they say the Moon\u2019s long-term record makes it very hard for late meteorite delivery to be the dominant source of Earth\u2019s oceans.\u201d <\/p>\n

The research used the known water content of carbonaceous meteorites to calculate potential delivery rates, scaling the findings from lunar data to Earth\u2019s size and impact rate. Even after multiplying the lunar values by roughly twenty to match Earth\u2019s exposure, the resulting water volume remained insufficient to account for ocean levels.<\/p>\n

\"AA tight shot of part of a well-preserved crater, facing southeast, taken during the third lunar EVA of Apollo 15. Credit: NASA<\/p>\n

How Apollo Samples Still Shape Lunar Science Today<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s conclusions are based on regolith samples collected during the six Apollo missions, all from near the lunar equator on the side facing Earth. These samples, gathered over fifty years ago, continue to yield new insights. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m part of the next generation of Apollo scientists \u2014 people who didn\u2019t fly the missions, but who were trained on the samples and the questions Apollo made possible,\u201d said Gargano.<\/p>\n

According to NASA, upcoming missions like Artemis III <\/a>will provide access to new lunar terrains, including permanently shadowed regions near the Moon\u2019s poles. These regions, among the coldest in the Solar System, could hold further clues about water delivery in the Earth-Moon system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clues buried in Moon dust are helping scientists revisit one of the oldest questions: where did Earth\u2019s water…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-250347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}