Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter makes new findings over Moon

Pune: Opening a window for scientists to find fresh insights into the moon's surroundings, the Chandrayaan-2 made new observations about the distribution of a particular gas in the moon's upper atmosphere, The Indian Express reported.

The fresh data from Chandra's Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2) mass spectrometer on Chandrayaan-2 showed the distribution of Argon-40 gas in the lunar 'exosphere'. The gas was found beyond the area where it was believed to exist, an ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation said in a statement.

The study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters said that the knowledge about the presence of Argon-40 at the higher latitude of the moon was not known before. The Chandrayaan 2's device observed it at the latitude range of -60 to +960 degrees.

This observed global distribution indicates that the interaction of Ar-40 with the surface is similar in low and mid-latitude regions. The finding seeks improvement in understanding the surface-exosphere interactions and source distributions of Ar-40, the study said.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission mainly intended to exhibit ISRO's capability of a soft landing on the moon. The mission had a lander and a rover component, and both were supposed to carry out many experiments on the Moon's surface. But Chandrayaan-2 crash-landed and got destroyed after some glitches in the final moments.

But the Orbiter part of the mission stood alive and is carrying out experiments. It has eight instruments, sending much new information on the moon and its atmosphere. Now, ISRO is with the Chandrayaan-3 mission, which has a launch date scheduled later this year.