He Huicun, Hu Sen, Gao Liang, Li Ruiying, Hao Jialong, Mitchell Ross N, Lu Kai, Gao Yubing, Li Linxi, Qiu Mengfan, Zhou Zhan, Yang Wei, Cai Shuhui, Chen Yi, Jia Lihui, Li Qiu-Li, Hui Hejiu, Lin Yangting, Li Xian-Hua, Wu Fu-Yuan
Key Laboratory of the Earth and Planetary Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Nat Commun. 2025 May 29;16(1):4971. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60388-y.
Water is the one of most precious resources for planetary utilisation. Lunar nearside impact glass beads (IGBs) have been demonstrated to contain abundant solar wind-derived water (SW-HO); however, little is known about its farside counterpart. Here, we report the water abundances and hydrogen isotope compositions and their distribution in farside IGBs collected by the Chang'e-6 mission to investigate the role of IGBs in the lunar surface water cycle. Farside IGBs are found to have water abundances of ~10-1,070 μg.g with hydrogen isotopes (δD) ranging from -988‰ to >2000‰ and display typical SW-HO hydration profiles. The SW-HO hydration depths in farside IGBs are strikingly shallower than in nearside IGBs. Moreover, the hydration profiles are only found in mare IGBs, with none observed in non-mare IGBs, indicating that SW-HO hydration in IGBs is likely composition dependent. These findings indicate that SW-HO storage of IGBs exhibits a dichotomy distribution in lunar soils.
水是地球上最宝贵的资源之一。月球近侧撞击玻璃珠（IGB）已被证明含有丰富的太阳风衍生水（SW-H₂O）；然而，对于其远侧对应物却知之甚少。在此，我们报告了嫦娥六号任务采集的远侧IGB中的水含量、氢同位素组成及其分布情况，以研究IGB在月球表面水循环中的作用。发现远侧IGB的水含量为~10 - 1070μg/g，氢同位素（δD）范围为-988‰至>2000‰，并呈现出典型的SW-H₂O水合剖面。远侧IGB中的SW-H₂O水合深度明显比近侧IGB中的浅。此外，水合剖面仅在月海IGB中发现，在非月海IGB中未观察到，这表明IGB中的SW-H₂O水合可能与成分有关。这些发现表明，IGB中的SW-H₂O储存量在月球土壤中呈现出二分法分布。
