Results of NASA 's satellite impact on the moon have revealed water ice at lunar pole
The 1.6km-high plume (one mile high) of debris was kicked up by the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) last month when it crashed into a crater near the Moon's south pole.
Based on the measurements, the team estimated that there was about 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of water in the view of their instruments, which took in the area of the impact crater (about 80 feet or 20 meters across) and the ejecta blanket (about 200 to 260 feet across, or 60 to 80 meters), Colaprete said. The amount of water in the plume was "a dozen two-gallon buckets" of water.
The identification of water-ice in the impact plume is important for purely scientific reasons, but also because a supply of water on the Moon would be a vital resource for future human exploration.
The impact into Cabeus crater threw up a large plume composed of water vapour and debris.