This article reveals important information about water and its origins. After thoroughly studying rocks from the moon, researchers have discovered that the moon's water has a "different chemical signature." The researchers used a special microscope to observe the amount of regular hydrogen in the moon rocks and the amount of deuterium (a hydrogen isotope because it has an extra neutron). They found that the moon rock's water had higher levels of deuterium compared to Earth's water. Interestingly, the comets Hale-Bopp, Hyakutake and Halley had similar amounts of deuterium as the moon rocks. Therefore, scientists have reason to believe that comets left water on the ancient moon.
This article is definitely discovery science because the researchers merely observed the moon waters' properties. If it had been hypothesis-based science, the researchers would have formulated a hypothesis , tested it, and THEN have drawn conclusions based on their results.
The article is important for research because it offers a possibility to how water got to Earth. The end of the article explains how the ocean's origins are unknown. And since moon's water is believed to come from comets (due to the similarities between the two of high levels of deuterium), than maybe Earth's water came from comets too. Comets battered the moon, so they could have battered Earth too. And Earth's oceans have more deuterium than water in the Earth's mantle. So the researchers speculate its because the oceans have "an extra dose of melted comet ice."
Moon Water Differs from Earth Water
By: Christopher Intagliata
Scientific American
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