Chandrayaan Confirms Water on Moon

Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a NASA instrument onboard Chandrayaan-I -India's maiden moon mission, has detected evidence of water across the lunar surface, scientists announced on Thursday. Describing as "path-breaking" the evidence of water on Moon by India's Chandrayaan-1 mission, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said no lunar odyssey so far had given a "positive" conclusion. "There is confirmation of traces of water. It is a path-breaking event as far as Chandrayaan-1 mission is concerned. It is very very significant. So far, no mission has confirmed the presence of water positively," he said. Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a NASA instrument onboard Chandrayaan-I, detected wavelengths of reflected light that would indicate a chemical bond between hydrogen and oxygen in materials on the thin layer of upper soil. The Moon Mineralogy Mapper or M3 has confirmed existence of water on moon by analysing the data collected from Chandrayaan-I. The finding ends four-decade long speculation on whether there is water on moon. Scientists first claimed that water existed on moon about 40 years ago after they analysed rock samples brought to earth as souvenirs by Apollo astronauts.
The lunar maps created by M3 could provide mission planners with prime locations for extraction of water from the lunar soil. Nair said ISRO would make a formal announcement and disclose detailed analysis on Friday following the publication of findings in a science journal and announcement by NASA scientists.