“Would you bring back some of that nice, clear moon water for me? … Roy McCutcheon!”
NASA has confirmed the presence of water on the moon for the first time, in an announcement delivered on Monday.
A tweet by NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine stated that NASA had “confirmed water on the sunlit surface” of the moon, though it is too early to tell whether there is enough for it to be used as a resource.
The discovery was made by the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), identifying what appeared to be signs of water molecules in a sunlit region, bound in a material which it is said may be glass.
Speculation had been rife since NASA announced last week that a major announcement was planned regarding an “exciting discovery about the Moon” and to be fair they have not disappointed.
https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/status/1320757460269895680?s=20
The prospect of large deposits of water on our lunar satellites posits a number of possibilities for NASA, particularly in terms of missions to the moon, and could save vast amounts of money using the moon’s water reserves rather than transporting it to and from Earth.
It confirms what scientists have theorised about for years. Ice deposits were found on the surface of the moon’s poles in 2018, with the south pole understood to have particularly large quantities.
