NASA: There is definitive evidence for the presence of ice on the lunar surface

NASA reports that it has found definitive evidence for the presence of water ice on the surface of the moon. According to NASA, this is the first time that researchers have directly observed definitive evidence for the presence of water ice.

The frozen water is located at both the north and south poles of the moon. It resides in the coldest and darkest parts of the lunar surface. There is more water ice at the South Pole than at the North Pole; here it is mainly located in craters in which there is permanent shade and it usually never gets warmer than -157 degrees Celsius. At the North Pole, the water ice is more spread out.

NASA researchers report that if there is enough ice on the surface, it may be accessible for future expeditions and even provide permanent residence. This water ice is probably easier to reach than the water present under the moon’s surface. The presence of water under the moon’s surface, for example, was already established in 2009 when the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite dropped a projectile on the moon, after which it was found that water had been blown into space.

However, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite was unable to determine exactly where that detected ice was or whether it was on the surface or buried deeper in the moon. Observations had previously been made that indirectly indicated the presence of ice on the surface of the South Pole, but that could also be caused by other phenomena, such as a highly reflective part of the lunar surface.

The current findings come from data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a NASA spectrograph aboard the Indian lunar probe Chandrayaan-1. Researchers re-examined the data from the instrument and found a clear sign of the water ice in the data. According to the research, 3.5 percent of cold traps have water ice on the surface.

The study is published under the title Direct evidence of surface exposed water ice in the
lunar polar regions.

To the left the south pole of the moon and next to it the north pole. The water is marked blue.