It's right there: Nasa discovers water on Moon's crater visible from Earth

 

The discovery comes on the back of several other observations made in the past, including by Chandrayaan-1. Here's why it is of critical importance.

In one of the biggest astronomical discoveries of the decade, Nasa confirmed the presence of water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), for the first time, confirmed that water may be distributed across the moon and not just limited to cold, shadowed places. The water molecules were found on Moon's Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth.

Scientists believe that the majority of the water detected must be stored within glasses or in voids between grains sheltered from the harsh environment, allowing the water to remain on the lunar surface. The discovery was published in Nature Astronomy on late Monday night.

Nasa in a teleconference said, "SOFIA has detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth, located in the Moon’s southern hemisphere." In the past, scientists had detected some form of hydrogen on the lunar surface, however, they were unable to distinguish between water and its close chemical relative, hydroxyl (OH).

“Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space,” said C I Honniball, the lead author and a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Yet somehow we’re seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there.”