Hasta La Gadget!

It turns out 40 years of believing the moon’s surface was dry wasn’t the case. New observations from three separate spacecraft, on three different missions, have confirmed “unambiguous evidence” of water across the moon’s surface, even in sunlit regions, according to Space.com.

There’s not a *lot* of water; one ton of the top layer of the surface would hold about 32 ounces of water, the report said. But it’s there–as both H2O molecules and hydroxyl (hydrogen and oxygen chemically bonded)–and could be harnessed as a source of drinking water or fuel for a future permanent moon base. This is in addition to the polar ice found by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The back story: forty years ago, astronauts brought back lunar rock samples. Trace amounts of water were detected at the time. But scientists assumed it was due to contamination from Earth, since the containers had leaked, according to the article. But now observations from Chandrayaan-1, NASA’s Deep Impact probe, and even NASA’s Cassini spacecraft made over the last 10 years have proved the presence of water conclusively. NASA is planning a 2pm EST briefing today to discuss the findings. (Image credit: NASA)