Chandrayaan-I confirms presence of water on Moon

Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a NASA instrument onboard Chandrayaan-I -India's maiden moon mission, has detected evidence of water across the lunar surface, scientists announced on Thursday.

Describing as "path-breaking" the evidence of water on Moon by India's Chandrayaan-1 mission, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said no lunar odyssey so far had given a "positive" conclusion.

Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a NASA instrument onboard Chandrayaan-I, detected wavelengths of reflected light that would indicate a chemical bond between hydrogen and oxygen in materials on the thin layer of upper soil.

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper or M3 has confirmed existence of water on moon by analysing the data collected from Chandrayaan-I.

The finding ends four-decade long speculation on whether there is water on moon.

Scientists first claimed that water existed on moon about 40 years ago after they analysed rock samples brought to earth as souvenirs by Apollo astronauts.

Chandrayaan-1, launched in October last year, ended prematurely last month ahead of its two-year life span but Nair has maintained that it had achieved 95 percent of its objectives.