Chandrayaan-2 orbiter makes new discovery about distribution of gas in moon’s atmosphere

🗞️ Subscribe Now: Get Express Premium to access the best Election reporting and analysis 🗞️

“Though, Argon-40 (Ar-40) is known to exist in the lunar exosphere, the knowledge on its distribution at higher latitudes is lacking. For the first time, Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 experiment aboard Chandrayaan-2 orbiter has continuously observed Ar-40 in latitude range of -60 to +60 degrees,” according to the study published in the scientific journal, Geophysical Research Letters, based on this data.

“The observed global distribution indicates that the interaction of Ar-40 with the surface is similar in low and mid latitude regions. The CHACE-2 observations hint at a requirement for improvement in our understanding of the surface-exosphere interactions and source distributions of Ar-40,” the study said.

The main objective of Chandrayaan-2 mission was to demonstrate ISRO’s capability to make a soft landing on the moon. The mission had a lander and a rover component that were supposed to carry out a number of experiments on the lunar surface. However, due to technical glitches in the final moments ahead of the touchdown, the lander was unable to make a soft landing. Instead, it crash-landed and got destroyed.

The Orbiter part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, however, was unaffected, and is continuing to carry out its scientific experiments. The Orbiter is carrying eight instruments, including CHACE-2, for different kinds of measurements. These instruments have been sending a wealth of new information about the moon and its surroundings.

To compensate for the failure of making a soft landing, the ISRO has prepared a Chandrayaan-3 mission that is scheduled to be launched later this year.