NASA confirms water on moon, thanks ISRO

Washington, Sep 25: Officially confirming the discovery of water on moon, NASA on Thursday, Sep 25 thanked Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Chandrayaan I for making the landmark finding possible.

NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) which is an imaging spectrometer onboard ISRO's maiden moon mission played an important role in revealing the existence of water molecules on the lunar surface in amounts that are greater than predicted.

"Water ice on the moon has been something of a holy grail for lunar scientists for a very long time," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, adding that this finding comes through the ingenuity, perseverance and international cooperation between NASA and the ISRO.

Explaining how the information from M3 was acquired and analysed, Carle Pieters, M3's principal investigator, clarified that 'water on moon' did not mean that there were lakes, oceans or puddles but rather signifies the presence of molecules of water and hydroxyl that interact with molecules of rock and dust specifically in the top millimetres of the moon's surface.

OneIndia News