Kansas University’s former astronaut Steve Hawley, a professor of physics and astronomy, said Friday that the discovery of significant amounts of water on the moon had many ramifications.

“I think it’s very interesting, and it certainly changes a lot of what we thought we knew about the moon,” Hawley said.

The water could have come from comets — possibly made of the building blocks of the universe, Hawley said, and would make for interesting further study.

The water itself could prove useful, as it could be dissociated into oxygen or rocket fuel, or potentially purified for drinking, he said.

“This means that the moon is more interesting than we thought,” Hawley said. “A lot more.”