Understanding a comet's water cycle and supply is critical to understanding these bodies as a system and as a possible source that delivered water to Earth.

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The common expectation was that water would be all over the surface. But what we found was that it was in small, discrete areas.

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These results show that there is ice on the surface, but not very much and definitely not enough to account for the water we see in the out-gassed material that is in the coma [the cloud of gas and dust that surrounds the comet].

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We have known for a long time that water ice exists in comets, but this is the first evidence of water ice on comets.

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