text: NASA finds water on the moon's sunlit surface for the first time - THE AIRBNB ANALYST
  October 27, 2020 5 min read theairbnbanalyst
  For the first time ever, scientists have identified water on the moon's sunlit surface. They also found that water is more common on the moon than previously thought, with pockets of ice hiding in shadowy regions of "eternal darkness," some as small as a penny, new studies reveal.
  In one study, researchers led by Casey Honniball, a NASA postdoctoral researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, studied water on the moon using data from NASA's SOFIA (the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) airborne telescope. With these observations, the scientists, for the first time in history, detected water on sunlit lunar surface.
  The researchers found that this water exists at around 100 to 400 parts per million. The scientists suggest that this water is likely "sandwiched" between grains on the lunar surface, which protects it from the environment.
  In the other study, led by Hayne, researchers used data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft in orbit around the moon to study the distribution of cold traps, where water could exist not just transiently, but permanently.
  "If we're right, water is going to be more accessible for drinking water, for rocket fuel, everything that NASA needs water for," Hayne said in the same statement. "Astronauts may not need to go into these deep, dark shadows … They could walk around and find one [cold trap] that's a meter wide and that might be just as likely to harbor ice."