NASA-Funded Scientists Detect Water on Moons Surface that Hints at Water Below

Mining & Minerals - Evaluations / Off-World Exploration, Mining, & Technology

NASA-funded lunar research has yielded evidence of water locked in mineral grains on the surface of the moon from an unknown source deep beneath the surface. Using data from NASA Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument aboard the Indian Space Research Organization Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists remotely detected magmatic water, or water that originates from deep within the moon's interior, on the surface of the moon.

he findings, published Aug. 25 in Nature Geoscience, represent the first detection of this form of water from lunar orbit. Earlier studies had shown the existence of magmatic water in lunar samples returned during the Apollo program. M3 imaged the lunar impact crater Bullialdus, which lies near the lunar equator.