A "significant amount" of frozen water has been found on the moon, Nasa, the US space agency, has said.
The findings boosted hopes of manning a permanent lunar base on the moon which had previously been thought to be uninhabitable, for further exploration to Mars.
"Yes indeed we found water and we did not find only a little bit but a significant amount," Anthony Colaprete, project scientist and principal investigator for the LCROSS mission, said on Friday.
"The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," Nasa said.
The data was found after Nasa sent two spacecraft crashing into the lunar surface last month in a dramatic experiment to probe Earth's nearest neighbour for water.