The planetary community from the USA studied the bottom of the large crater Salton at the South pole of the moon by using tools of automatic station LRO, and found that water reserves, the existence of which was pointing to data from terrestrial telescopes and space probes, according to a paper published in the journal Nature.

It is believed that the moon was formed conditions, preventing the accumulation and preservation of large reserves of water. The lack of atmosphere and weak gravity makes impossible the existence of the molecules of H2O in the form of liquid or steam, and the ice on the open surface will gradually evaporate under the action of the solar wind, RIA Novosti reports.

However, water on the moon there is still - in 2009 the Indian probe chandrayan found water in the southern hemisphere of the Earth satellite, and in 2012 probe LRO found frost in craters at the North pole.

The group of astrophysicists led by Maria Zuber (Maria Zuber) from the Massachusetts Institute of technology (USA) examined whether there is water in the deep crater Salton at the South pole of the moon, after examining the data, received by the altimeter on Board the LOLA apparatus LRO.

As noted by the planetary community, depth and Subpolar position of this crater make it one of the most likely candidates for the role of the moon "icehouse". However, repeated attempts to detect water using terrestrial telescopes and space probes failed because of conflicting data obtained by different instruments.

Sober and her colleagues used data from LOLA to compile a detailed topographic map of the bottom of the crater and its walls. Astrophysicists have studied the structure of Saltana and used the new data to calculate the age of the individual parts of the crater and check whether there is at its bottom, ice or other forms of water.

According to scientists, the bottom edge of the crater was formed a long time ago, about 3.6 billion years ago. On the other hand, the walls of the crater is much younger than other parts of Salton - their age is 1.4 billion years. This is due to the fact that part of the matter on the slopes gradually slid down to the bottom of the crater.

They then tried to check, whether there is at the bottom of the crater water, comparing albedo - reflectivity - edges of the walls and bottom of the crater measured LOLA in preparation of topographic maps of Saltana. It is considered that the accumulation of ice or other forms of water should have a high albedo, approximately two times greater than the regolith - breed lunar soil.

Comparison albedo of different parts of the crater showed that on the surface may be a mixture of ice and rock thickness of several micrometers. According to the calculations of sober and her colleagues, the share of water in the crust will not exceed 22%. These conclusions are supported by data from another device - radar Mini-RF onboard the probe LRO.