NASA’s article “Water Molecules Found on the Moon,” dated September 24, 2009, reports that “NASA scientists have discovered water molecules in the polar regions of the Moon.”

The discovery was made by NASA’s Moon Mineraology Mapper (M3, or “M-cubed”), which is one of the instruments on the Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-1.

The M3 spectrometer measured electromagnetic radiation (light) reflecting off the Moon's surface at infrared wavelengths (a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum). The scientists then divided the wavelengths absorbed by the M3 instrument, which resulted in the ability to see absorption patterns of water (H₂O) molecules and hydroxyl (-OH).

An image from the M3 instrument, showing indications of water molecules (in blue) is found within the NASA article mentioned earlier.

NASA then had its Cassini spacecraft and its Deep Impact spacecraft make confirmations of water on the Moon.

Jim Green, director of the NASA Planetary Science Division, stated, "Water ice on the Moon has been something of a holy grail for lunar scientists for a very long time. This surprising finding has come about through the ingenuity, perseverance and international cooperation between NASA and the India Space Research Organization." [NASA]

The amount of water found on the Moon is very small, on the order of molecules.

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NASA scientists are preliminarily saying that the quantity of water molecules found is about: “… 1,000 water molecule parts-per-million.”  They describe that amount as, “…if you harvested one ton of the top layer of the Moon's surface, you could get as much as 32 ounces of water.”

And, the water was found in the top few millimeters of lunar soil, or regolith. The presence of water molecules and hydroxyl were found in larger quantities in the higher latitudes of the Moon, closer to its poles than near to its equator.

It was just reported, on September 20, 2009, that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found hydrogen (H), a component of water (H₂O), at the south pole of the Moon. Check out the iTWire article “Moon explorer points to hydrogen in sunny parts of south pole.”

NASA scientists are now more confident that they will find more water when they deliberately crash the LCROSS (short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) spacecraft inside a crater near the southern pole of the Moon.

The crater has been identified as Cabeus A. The crashing of LCROSS into Cabeus A is scheduled to occur on October 9, 2009, at 7:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

Read the iTWire article “NASA selects Cabeus A as lunar impact site for LCROSS.”

A lot of exciting discoveries are being made from explorations of the Moon. Currently, the Japanese SELENE spacecraft (also known as Kaguya) is orbiting above the Moon.

The Indian Chandrayaan-1, as noted earlier, is also exploring the Moon. As part of the LCROSS launch, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is also exploring the Moon for the United States.

The Chinese spacecraft Chang’e had been orbiting the Moon since 2007, and was just recently, in March 2009, taken out of orbit and crashed into the lunar surface.

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For additional information on this important discovery on the Moon, read the NASA article “Deep Impact and Other Spacecraft Find Clear Evidence of Water on Moon.” The article states that a, “Thin layer of surface 'dew' appears to form, then dissipate each day.”

The article further makes a statement from University of Maryland astronomer Jessica Sunshine. Dr. Sunshine writes, "The Deep Impact observations of the Moon not only unequivocally confirm the presence of OH/H2O on the lunar surface, but also reveal that the entire lunar surface is hydrated during at least some portions of the lunar day.”

A paper, written by Dr. Sunshine and co-authors, appears in the September 24, 2009 issue of the magazine Science.

The Science article, which reports on the Sunshine paper, is titled “A Whiff of Water Found on the Moon.”

The original article in Science is called “Temporal and Spatial Variability of Lunar Hydration as Observed by the Deep Impact Spacecraft.”

Its authors are Jessica M. Sunshine, Tony L. Farnham, Lori M. Feaga, Michael F. A'Hearn, and Frédéric Merlin, from University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, U.S.A.; Olivier Groussin, from Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, Marseille, France; and Ralph E. Milliken, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, U.S.A.

They state in the abstract to their paper, “The Moon is generally anhydrous, yet the Deep Impact spacecraft found the entire surface to be hydrated during some portions of the day. OH and H2O absorptions in the near infrared were strongest near the North Pole and are consistent with <0.5 wt% H2O. Hydration varied with temperature, rather than cumulative solar radiation, but no inherent absorptivity differences with composition were observed.”

“However, comparisons between data collected one week (a quarter lunar day) apart show a dynamic process with diurnal changes in hydration that were greater for mare basalts (~70%) than for highlands (~50%). This hydration loss and return to steady state occurred entirely between local morning and evening, requiring a ready daytime source of water group ions, which is consistent with a solar wind origin.”