Water found on the Moon

Clear evidence has been found of the existence of water on the moon, new scientific papers disclose.

Using compiled data from three spacecraft flybys of the moon in recent years, scientists have discovered proof that a thin film of water lies just beneath the moon’s surface soil in some places.

The new data was gathered by probes equipped with NASA instruments designed to map the Moon’s mineral composition by analyzing the reflection of sunlight off its surface.

One of the co-authors of the scientific study report, Larry Taylor of the University of Tennessee, said the instruments used in the mission are capable of detecting the composition of the thin upper layer of the Moon’s surface only to a depth of two or three inches.

Scientists had until now believed water could exist on areas of the Moon’s permanently dark poles, but that the rest of the satellite was completely dry.

Taylor and his colleagues believe it may have come from an astronomical phenomenon known as solar winds, which consist mainly of streams of positively charged hydrogen atoms emitted as the sun undergoes nuclear fusion.

Scientists estimate that each ton of lunar soil consists of 25 percent water.

In the 1960’s, samples of lunar rock and soil brought back to by the Apollo astronauts also contained traces of water. But the containers in which they were transported were not hermetically sealed so researchers dismissed the presence of water as coming from the Earth