24 Gallons of water found on the moon near South Pole: Scientist

This artist's rendering released by NASA shows the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite as it crashed into the moon to test for the presence of water last month. (CREDIT: NASA, via Reuters)

Water can be found on the moon, scientists said Friday, making it the oddest place to contain this natural, life-sustaining liquid.

Scientists made this bold statement after researching results from the LCROSS mission, which sent a probe crashing into the Cabeus crater near the moon’s South Pole. The impact carved out a hole 60- to 100-feet wide and unleashed at least 24 gallons of water.

"Indeed yes, we found water," Anthony Colaprete, the principal investigator for NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, said in a news conference according to the Associated Press.

"We need to take all the information — the amount of ejecta, the size of the crater — and reconstruct the entire event and understand how it all fits back into the ground," Colaprete added.

The LCROSS mission consisted of two pieces — an empty rocket stage to carve into the lunar surface and a small spacecraft to measure the liquid that would fly off the surface.

Lunar scientists have known that the moon contained a lot of hydrogen, thanks to the Lunar Prospector mission, but it wasn’t entirely clear what form that hydrogen was stored in.

Now with the LCROSS observation, scientist now understands the reason for the hydrogen which is to bind itself to oxygen to form water.

This discovery will also make it easier for astronauts to send up camp.