Water on the Moon, For Real

Congratulations and apologies are due. The LCROSS team, who endured much grumbling  from Internet viewers after last month's crash into the moon failed to produce a big visible plume, is reporting what they say is clear evidence of water in a lunar crater. Not just a thimbleful, either—at least 24 gallons, and probably more, from a crater 20 to 30 meters wide. The spectral signature from two different instruments is "very real," said a smiling principal investigator Anthony Colaprete.

The results from LCROSS lend credence to the idea that the rest of the hydrogen detected a decade ago at the moon's poles is water ice, too, according to Greg Delory, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley. Read about the LCROSS results here.