05. What about ice on the Moon? (A K2S Question)

From The Space Library

In looking at water in space, we must also look at our own Moon. Our Sun continues to burn hydrogen and helium, create other elements in its core, and broadcast large amounts of hydrogen, helium, and other elements throughout the solar system. These solar winds strike our Moon and it is believed that oxygen and hydrogen flow across the surface and collect at the north and south poles as ice. The Moon does not have enough of an atmosphere to support the growth of noticeable ice caps, but we believe with a relative degree of confidence that extensive ice is located in the soil and in cold traps at both of the lunar poles. Cold traps are craters on the Moon where, because they are always angled away from the Sun, light—and therefore the energy which creates heat—hasn't entered for the last three or four billion years. Because no light reaches the bottoms of these craters, they have grown so cold that any hydrogen, helium, and oxygen that flows into them probably freezes into ice.

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Answer provided by Joe Rhemann

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer

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