The Chandrayaan-1 probe had found traces of water across the surface of large parts of the moon, challenging the long-held view that the earth’s natural satellite is bone dry.
Chandrayaan-1The spacecraft also found indications that water is being produced in the lunar soil through interactions with charged particles streaming out from the sun.
Indication of Water in Lunar SoilThis major discovery is a vindication of the Chandryaan-1 mission, which encountered many problems and finally ended abruptly last month.
The Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), a U.S.-supplied instrument that flew on the Chandrayaan-1, examined the intensity of different colours of sunlight bouncing off the lunar surface.
Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3)In a paper being published online this week by Science, American and Indian scientists report that the instrument found a distinctive signature of water and hydroxyl emanating from the moon. (A water molecule is made up of one oxygen atom linked to two hydrogen atoms, while hydroxyl has the oxygen atom attached to just one hydrogen atom.)
The
M3 discovered the signature of water and hydroxyl on the surface soil and rocks at many diverse places in sunlit regions of the moon. The signature was stronger at the higher latitudes. Two U.S. space missions, Cassini and the Deep Impact spacecraft, had provided supporting evidence.
What was detected was water molecules present in extremely minute quantities on the surface soil and rocks, noted
J. N. Goswami, director of the
Physical Research Laboratory in
Ahmedabad and
principal scientist for the
Chandrayaan-1. He estimated that less than a teaspoon of water could be squeezed out from several kg of lunar soil.
The widespread distribution of water seen by
M3 was
“a complete surprise,” said Lawrence Taylor of the University of Tennessee in the U.S., one of the authors of the paper. Scientists have begun finding signs of water in some lunar minerals.
Discovery with the help of Chandrayaan-1 has made all of INDIANS proud.
SALUTE to ISRO....
