Skip to main content

There may be frozen water on the moon, new study suggests

Conceptual illustration of permanently shadowed, shallow icy craters near the lunar south pole. UCLA/NASA

A new study suggests that there could be thick deposits of frozen water on the moon, located in craters near the lunar pole.

Recommended Videos

Discovering potential frozen water on the moon is not only of scientific interest. It could also be important for future lunar exploration, providing a water source for astronauts who stay on the moon for an extended period. As transporting supplies from Earth on a rocket requires a huge amount of fuel, finding an off-planet water source could enable longer missions and more efficient launches.

The findings on the moon are based on findings on Mercury. The planet and the moon share a similarly scarred surface caused by impacts from asteroids, creating many craters. And both the moon and Mercury spin in such a way that the Sun never rises high over the horizon over the poles, making these regions exceptionally cold. Some areas of the poles, like impact craters, are permanently in shadow and thus stay cold enough for ice to be preserved there indefinitely.

The observations of Mercury were made using MESSENGER, the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging spacecraft, and the moon observations were made using LRO, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Scientists used elevation data to determine the location and depth of craters, showing that the craters were up to 10% shallower near the poles, suggesting they could contain ice. This was supported by findings that the craters were shallower on their sides which faced the pole rather than the sides which faced the equator, which is what would happen if ice were exposed to less sunlight on the pole-facing side.

Using radar, scientists have searched for ice on the moon before but have only discovered small, shallow deposits. By contrast, on Mercury, they have discovered thick ice deposits. “We showed Mercury’s polar deposits to be dominantly composed of water ice and extensively distributed in both Mercury’s north and south polar regions,” Nancy Chabot, instrument scientist for MESSENGER’s Mercury Dual Imaging System at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said in a statement. “Mercury’s ice deposits appear to be much less patchy than those on the Moon, and relatively fresh, perhaps emplaced or refreshed within the last tens of millions of years.”

The findings are published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
NASA sets water challenge to aid crewed missions to the moon and Mars
nasa challenge seeks way to harvest water on moon and mars student

Humans are returning to the moon in the near future, and we could be on our way to Mars before too long, as well.

But for missions aimed at creating bases where we can stay for extended periods of time, we need a way to harvest any available water for drinking, growing plants, or making rocket fuel.

Read more
NASA offers new ideas on how to avoid contaminating the moon and Mars
budweiser beer mars colony

 

With NASA ramping up efforts to put humans back on the moon and launch the first-ever crewed mission to Mars, the space agency has released information outlining suggested changes to rules on how we protect both places from possible biological contamination during human and robotic missions.

Read more
The Ioniq 5 is once again eligible for the $7,500 tax credit
2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5

After a brief and confusing absence, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 is once again eligible for the full $7,500 federal tax credit — and this time, it's sticking around (at least for now). So, what happened? Let’s unpack the ride.

The Ioniq 5, a sleek and tech-savvy electric crossover, initially made headlines not just for its design, but for being built at Hyundai’s brand-new Metaplant in Georgia. That domestic assembly qualified it for the EV tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which requires vehicles to be made in North America with batteries sourced from trade-friendly countries. But early in 2025, the Ioniq 5 vanished from the list. Why? Likely due to its battery packs, which were then still being sourced from SK On’s Hungarian facility.

Read more