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Astronomers have seen the first firm evidence that there are deposits of icy water on the surface of the moon – and they may have been laying there for the past 3 billion years.
The ice is nestled within craters at both poles of the moon that are permanently in shadow and bitterly cold at −163 °C. The presence of accessible water on the surface of the moon could prove useful if we ever establish a permanent base there.
Ultraviolet scans in 2008 and 2009 using spectrometers aboard India’s first lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan-1, had hinted the moons polar shadowlands might…
