(21.8.2018) As that statement indicates, scientists already knew that the lunar underground isn‘t bone-dry. For example, in 2009, an impactor released by NASA‘s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) blasted a bunch of water into space after slamming into a permanently shadowed region of Cabeus Crater, which lies near the moon‘s south pole.

But it wasn‘t clear from the LCROSS data where, exactly, that excavated ice originally lay — how much gray dirt once sat atop it. And, while several instruments have spotted tantalizing hints of exposed lunar ice over the years, these detections had remained unconfirmed until now.