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Science 15 June 1973:
Vol. 180. no. 4091, pp. 1166 - 1168
DOI: 10.1126/science.180.4091.1166
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Articles

Water Vapor from a Lunar Breccia: Implications for Evolving Planetary Atmospheres

D. A. Cadenhead 1 and W. G. Buergel 1

1 Department of Chemistry, State University of New York, Buffalo 14214

The exposure of a typical complex lunar breccia to hydrogen after a thorough outgassing produces a fully reduced surface state. Subsequent outgassing over a wide temperature range results in the production of water vapor formed from the chemisorbed hydrogen and oxygen from the lunar sample; the proposed mechanism has been confirmed in terms of the chemisorption of deuterium and the release of heavy water. Since the conditions of the experiments are consistent with those on the lunar surface, it is postulated that water vapor will be produced on the moon through the interaction of the solar wind with lunar soil. It is also proposed that such a process could play an important role in the early history of many planets where an oxygen-rich soil is exposed to a reducing atmosphere.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Mercury: Does Its Atmosphere Contain Water?.
G. E. Thomas and G. E. Thomas (1974)
Science 183, 1197-1198
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