by nate on Friday, November 13th, 2009 | Knowledge, News, World

“We’re unlocking the mysteries of our nearest neighbour and by extension the solar system. It turns out the moon harbours many secrets, and Lcross has added a new layer to our understanding,” said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at Nasa’s headquarters in Washington.

The new findings, detailed in the Sept. 25 issue of the journal Science, come in the wake of further evidence of lunar polar water ice by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and just weeks before the planned lunar impact of NASA’s LCROSS satellite, which will hit one of the permanently shadowed craters at the moon’s south pole in hope of churning up evidence of water ice deposits in the debris field.

The moon remains drier than any desert on Earth, but the water is said to exist on the moon in very small quantities. One ton of the top layer of the lunar surface would hold about 32 ounces of water, researchers said.

Nasa scientists yesterday announced that a probe that was deliberately crashed into the moon’s southern polar region last month discovered at least 25 gallons of water.

“Yes, we found water,” said Anthony Colaprete, a principal project investigator at Nasa’s Ames research centre in California. “We didn’t find just a little bit, we found a significant amount.”

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Tags: alternative living place, astronaut, earth, is there water on the moon, live on the moon, lunar, moon, NASA, water