Moon soil contains tiny bit of water

Data gathered by India's Chandrayaan probe and two other spacecraft indicates the Moon contains surprising quantities of water. Scientists discovered Moon soil is damp, a very fine film of H2O coats the particles that make up the lunar dirt. US moon researcher Larry Taylor estimates about a litre of water could be squeezed out of a cubic metre of lunar soil, making it a useful resource for future Moon expeditions.

The quantity of water is seen to increase the closer the observations are made to the poles - the very places the Apollo missions never went.

Scientists suspect the water is created in the soil in an interaction with the solar wind, the fast-moving stream of particles that constantly billows away from the Sun.

Harsh space radiation triggers a chemical reaction in which oxygen atoms already in the soil acquire hydrogen nuclei to make water molecules and the simpler hydrogen-oxygen (OH) molecule.

The amounts are small, say researchers, but boost the notion that astronauts based on the Moon could use it as a resource.

More info at BBC News.