Pond Of Ice Found Inside Moon Crater

The moon, long thought to be bone dry, has a pond of ice hidden deep inside a crater, scientists disclosed Monday, increasing chances that humans may someday live on its surface.

The discovery came from the Clementine spacecraft, which used lasers to examine the depths of the moon’s deep craters.

Officials at the Pentagon, who co-sponsored the project with NASA, planned an announcement of the findings at a news conference today.

“If you could wish for any one thing there to make it easier to explore with, it would be water,” said Anthony Cook, astronomical observer at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

The ice was found in a huge crater deep in the south pole of the moon, said Rick Lehner, spokesman for the Pentagon’s Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. He said that a panel of scientists have concluded that the ice is frozen water.

Lehner said the crater is twice the size of Puerto Rico and 13 kilometers deep, or as high as Mount Everest, the tallest peak on earth. He said the ice formation is the size of a small lake and is between 10 and 100 feet deep.

“People have theorized that there may be water on the moon but the (six) Apollo missions didn’t find any evidence,” he said.

Scientists believe that about 3.6 billion years ago, a comet crashed into the moon, and water droplets on its tail were left in the bottom of the crater, the deepest hole in the solar system, he said.