The team then confirmed through a series of tests that hydrogen had been present all along, and the samples had not been infused by hydrogen-rich solar winds or tainted by other volatiles such as meteors, as had been previously suggested.

"This confirms that water comes from deep within the mantle of the Moon," said lead author Alberto Saal, assistant professor of geological sciences at Brown University. "It has nothing to do with secondary processes, such as contamination or solar wind."

TO BE CONTINUED