India's Chandrayaan mission discovers water on Moon

NEW DELHI, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- In a landmark breakthrough, India's maiden mission to the Moon, Chandryaan, has discovered clear evidence of water on the lunar surface, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said Thursday.

"There is confirmation of traces of water. It is a path-breaking event as far as Chandrayaan-1 mission is concerned. It isvery very significant. So far, no mission has confirmed the presence of water positively," ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair toldthe media in the southern city of Bangalore.

The discovery of water on the Moon has also been published in the prestigious American journal "Science".

The quantity of water molecules near poles of the Moon is tiny but could become a useful resource for astronauts wishing to live on the Moon, scientists have revealed in the journal. Chandrayaan made its observations using a U.S.-provided instrument, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3 for short.

Chandrayaan's startling findings have been reinforced by data from two other older spacecrafts Cassini and High Impact, but the clincher really came from the 100-million-U.S. dollar Indian Moon mission which was recently lost in space.

The Indian Moon mission was launched late last year but has been abandoned due to a fault. Nevertheless, the ISRO considers the water discovery a major triumph and a vindication of its endeavors.