Water on the Moon is found around the South Pole where deep impact craters are shrouded in permanent darkness. Until recently, astronomers believed the water was left behind by water-bearing comets and volcanic activity billions of years ago. Satellite data collected by NASA, however, has uncovered younger-looking deposits of ice in smaller craters.
The “surprising” discovery suggests there are unknown processes through which water makes its way to the Moon.
The breakthrough was made by astronomers at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, in the US.
Graduate student Ariel Deutsch who led the study said: “That was a surprise. There hadn’t really been any observations of ice in younger cold traps before.”
Ms Deutsch and her colleagues studied photos snapped by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been photographing the Moon since 2009.
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The researchers used visual cues to date ancient impact craters as old as 3.1 billion years.
Because the ice deposits contained within cannot be older than the craters, the researchers had an approximate idea of the ice’s age.
Millions of years of small meteorite impacts have also rendered the deposits rougher and more jagged.
But in a twist of events, the researchers found smaller impact craters were home to sharper and more well-defined ice deposits.
This ice appears to be much younger and the team at Brown is yet to discover how it formed.
Having access to the valuable resource that is water, will help future colonists find a firm footing on the Moon’s surface.
Access to water can also aid in the reproduction of resources such as fuel.
Professor Jim Head from Brown said: “When we think about sending humans back to the Moon for long-term exploration, we need to know what resources are there that we can count on, and we currently don’t know.
“Studies like this one help us make predictions about where we need to go to answer those questions.”
