NASA discusses water on the moon in 2013
Earth's magnetic field plays a vital role in shielding our planet from the harmful effects of solar radiation. As charged particles from the Sun stream towards Earth on so-called solar winds, they slam into the planet's magnetosphere - the region of space dominated by Earth's magnetic field - and create a myriad of effects. Most of these effects are harmless, such as the mesmerising Northern lights or Aurora Borealis, but solar activity can also disrupt communications and cause minor tech blackouts.
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Solar winds also have a peculiar effect on the Moon, which does not have a magnetic field of its own.
Since the Apollo Moon landings in the late 1960s and early 1970s, scientists have discovered the Moon is not the dry, desolate landscape we thought.
We now know the Moon's southern pole, in particular, is full of frozen water.
Scientists believe one way water forms on the Moon is when positively charged ions of hydrogen carried on solar winds bombard its surface.
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When the particles strike the lunar orb, they can spontaneously react and form hydroxyl (OH-) or molecular water (H20).
Computer models have backed this theory but have also found half of the lunar water should evaporate in the three to five days around the Full Moon when the lunar orb passes through Earth's magnetosphere.
In essence, the magnetosphere would absorb the solar winds and prevent them from replenishing the water.
Surprisingly, an analysis of the Moon's surface by India's Chandrayaan-1 satellite has found the water does not disappear during this period.
New research in Astrophysical Journal Letters has now proposed Earth's magnetic field provides its own flow of ions to the Moon.
The theory was confirmed by the Japanese Kaguya satellite, which detected the ions near the Earth's natural satellite.