Found Water On The Moon

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'This is a real water resource.'
The news comes a day after it was also revealed that large quantities of water had been found on the surface of the Moon.
The discovery increases the chances of humanity living on the lunar surface inside protective domes, mining the rocks and dust for water to drink and power spacecrafts.
The scientific discovery made by the Indian lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 was announced by Nasa today.
'Widespread water has been detected on the surface of the Moon. Dr Jessica Sunshine, one of the researchers who found the water, said: 'It's sort of just sticking on the surface. Ten years ago, scientists found traces of water lying in the shadowy craters at the Moon's poles.
The latest announcement comes two weeks before a Nasa probe will smash near the Moon's south pole to see whether it can kick up buried ice.
The discovery confirms what two other space probes have found, namely that the chemical signs of water are all over the Moon's surface.
It is not enough moisture to foster homegrown life on the Moon. But if processed in mass quantities, it might provide resources - drinking water and rocket fuel - for future Moon-dwellers, scientists say. The water comes and goes during the lunar day.
Dr Sunshine said a two litre bottle of lunar earth would only provide enough water to fill the pipette of a medicine bottle.
And Nasa's Rob Green told a press conference tonight: 'Even the driest deserts on Earth have more water than at the poles of the Moon.'
Amazingly, the new data also suggests that water is continously being formed on the Moon.
It was fitted with a Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3 for short, designed to search for water by picking up the electromagnetic radiation emitted by hydrogen and oxygen minerals.
How solar wind could be forming water on the Moon



Scientists believe the Sun's solar wind could be interacting with the Moon's soil to form the liquid. We are protected by the solar wind due to Earth's atmosphere, however the Moon has no such shield. Scientists believe that when these ions hit the lunar surface with enough force, they break apart the oxygen bonds in the Moon soil. The Nasa-designed machine could detect water on and a few inches below the surface of the Moon.
Scientists were looking for a signature of water in the craters near the poles, but were surprised to find evidence of water on the sunlit areas of the Moon instead.
Experts believe the water is trapped in the Moon's surface dirt and in theory can be extracted in large quantities to support life.
The announcement comes two weeks before a Nasa probe will be smashed near the Moon's south pole to see whether it can kick up buried ice.
Over the last decade, astronomers have found some signs of underground ice on the Moon's poles. It finds unexpected and pervasive water clinging to the surface of soil, not absorbed into it.
The water was spotted by spacecraft that either circled the Moon or flew by. Hydroxyl is one atom of hydrogen with one atom of oxygen, instead of two hydrogen atoms in water.
This light wavelength was discovered first by an instrument on the Indian lunar satellite Chandrayaan-1, which stopped operating last month.
Scientists initially figured something was wrong with the instrument because everyone knew the Moon did not have a drop of water on the surface, Pieters said.
Sunshine, who was on the team, had a similar instrument on Nasa's Deep Impact probe, headed for a comet but swinging by the Moon in June. So Deep Impact looked for the water-hydroxyl signature, and found it.
'It's unequivocal.'
Scientists testing lunar samples returned to Earth by astronauts did find traces of water, but they had figured it was contamination from moisture in Earth air, Pieters said.
Lunar and Planetary Institute senior scientist Paul Spudis called it exciting and said it raises the logical question: Where did that water come from?
Pieters figures there are three possibilities: It came from comets or asteroids that crashed into the Moon, those crashes freed up trapped water from below the surface, or the solar wind carries hydrogen atoms that binds with oxygen in the earth.
Nasa's Lunar Prospector probe in the 1990s saw a strong hydrogen signal in the far north and south. Some scientists on the mission suggested there could be up to 300 million tonnes of water-ice buried in crater soils that never see sunlight