There are oases of water-rich soil that could sustain astronauts on the Moon, according to Nasa.
Scientists studied the full results of an experiment that smashed a rocket and a probe into a lunar crater last year.
The impacts kicked up large amounts of rock and dust, revealing a suite of fascinating chemical compounds and far more water than anyone had imagined.
A Nasa-led team tells Science magazine that about 155kg of water vapour and water-ice were blown out of the crater.
The researchers' analysis suggests the lunar regolith, or soil, at the impact site contains 5.6% by weight of water-ice.
That's a significant amount of water, said Anthony Colaprete, from the US space agency's Ames research centre.
And it's in the form of water-ice grains. That's good news because water-ice is very much a friendly resource to work with. You don't have to warm it very much; you just have to bring it up to room temperature to pull it out of the dirt real easy.
And he added: If you took just the 10km region around the impact site and say it had 5% water - that would be equivalent to about a billion gallons of water. I'm not saying that's what's there, but it just shows you that even at these small concentrations there's potential for lots of water.
Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11598813
