Moist Moon a Bolt From the Blue

It's not covered in green cheese.

Or dust.

To the surprise of everyone, the surface of the moon turns out to be literally covered in water (and/or water-like particles consisting of one hydrogen and one oxygen atom).

Granted, the water isn't very deep. Less than a millimeter deep, in fact. One researcher said, "It's like somebody painted the globe."

But it's there, and it's wet -- and it comes as a shock to lunar researchers who have always believed firmly in a bone-dry moon.

Researchers aren't quite sure how the water formed, but they have a theory. According to The New York Times, one possibility is that "the water is being created when protons from the solar wind slam into the lunar surface. The collisions may free oxygen atoms in the minerals and allow them to recombine with protons and electrons to form water."

If this idea is accurate, said Lori M. Feaga, a research scientist at the University of Maryland who is a member of the team that analyzed the data provided by the Deep Impact lunar research project, "You would have to scrape the area of a baseball field or a football field to get one quart of water."

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