When NASA deliberately crashed the LCROSS satellite into the moon last month, the media spun the event as a dud because the impact didn’t create a huge glowing explosion and pretty pictures for the nightly news. In fact, it wasn’t even visible from Earth at all.

But it was no dud, because the real point of the experiment was to perform spectrographic analysis of the dust and vapor kicked up by the crash — and that analysis has now confirmed the presence of a significant amount of water.

The visible camera image showing the ejecta plume at about 20 seconds after impact. (Credit: NASA.)Scientists have long speculated about the source of vast quantities of hydrogen that have been observed at the lunar poles. The LCROSS findings are shedding new light on the question of water, which could be more widespread and in greater quantity than previously suspected.

Permanently shadowed regions could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data. In addition, water, and other compounds represent potential resources that could sustain future lunar exploration.

Since the impacts, the LCROSS science team has been working almost nonstop analyzing the huge amount of data the spacecraft collected. The team concentrated on data from the satellite’s spectrometers, which provide the most definitive information about the presence of water. A spectrometer examines light emitted or absorbed by materials that helps identify their composition.

“We are ecstatic,” said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. “Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapor plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact. The concentration and distribution of water and other substances requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water.”