听From PBS News Hour: In 2018, astronomers directly confirmed听听that water, in the form of ice, is on the moon鈥檚 surface. Aptly named water ice resides in the coldest, darkest parts of our planet鈥檚 satellite, like the shadow-shrouded craters that dot its polar regions, the deepest parts of which never see sunlight.
But听听published Monday verified a suspicion that researchers had long been unable to confirm. A team of scientists who studied a slice of the moon aboard NASA鈥檚 Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) 鈥� considered to be听听鈥� detected the first evidence that water molecules can exist on the unforgiving landscape of the sunlit lunar surface. That means that those molecules could be found across more parts of the moon than scientists previously imagined...
The presence of water on the moon is 鈥渁n absolute game-changer鈥� for both future exploration and paving the way toward a sustainable human presence there, said Jack Burns, a professor in the department of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the 麻豆视频.