We have water on Mars and now we have water on moon. This is one of the most important scientific discoveries recently and it’s being explained tomorrow in the journal Science. During the Apollo missions astronauts brought back to Earth a lot of moon samples, but the researchers only now demonstrated the existence of water on moon. The scientists were helped by three spacecrafts days before NASA planned to crash the LCROSS satellite into the lunar poles in order look for water deposits in the debris area.
The lunar poles are frozen as they haven’t seen direct sunlight for millions of years, but now there is clear evidence of water ice deposits on the moon. Thanks to the samples taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter scientists are now sure that there is water on moon and that it could provide drinking water for astronauts as well as fuel for the probes.
Scientists thought that the moon is bone dry as the Apollo missions astronauts brought back lunar samples which contained isotopes of oxygen, but they thought it was contamination from Earth. The first Indian space probe called Chandrayaan-1 found the first evidence of water on moon as it has detected special wavelengths of light which are only possible if there is a sign of water or hydroxyl. With information from other two spacecrafts, NASA Cassini and NASA Deep Impact probe, it has been proved that surface of the moon is hydrated constantly during a part of the lunar day.
Still, there are a lot of other important details that have to be put together, however, the most important thing is that there is water on moon. This is such an exciting discovery, and we cannot wait to study other planets that could sustain life.
via Space
