Scientists announced on September 28 that India's lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, has touched down in a crater on the Moon that dates back 3.85 billion years. This crater is among the oldest craters on the Moon's surface.
According to experts, including those from Ahmedabad's Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Physical Research Laboratory, the crater where Chandrayaan-3 touched down was created some 3.85 billion years ago, during the Nectarian epoch.
Chandrayaan-3 Explores Billion Years Old Crater
S Vijayan, an associate professor in the Physical Research Laboratory's Planetary Sciences Division, claims that the mission's Pragyan rover has visited a location on the Moon that has yet to be visited by any other missions.
"The Chandrayaan-3 landing location has a distinct geological environment that has not been visited by any earlier spacecraft. These are the first on-site photos of the Moon at this latitude taken by the mission's Pragyan rover. They show the Moon's evolutionary history," he said to PTI.
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New Findings of Chandrayaan-3
The photographs provided insight into the Moon's evolution, revealing that half of the crater was covered with debris, or "ejecta," from the South Pole-Aitken basin, which is the largest and best-known impact basin on the moon, according to the researchers.
The researchers claimed it was likely one half of the crater, with the other half having been 'degraded' by being buried by ejecta.
The Chandrayaan-3 landing site is made up of material that has been deposited from various parts of the Moon, according to the combined photos from the mission and satellites, according to S Vijayan.
Difference between Crater and Impact Basin
A crater is created when an asteroid hits the surface of a larger object. The material that gets thrown out during the impact is called ejecta.
A crater that is less than 300 km in diameter is called a crater, whereas an impact basin is a big, complex crater with a more than 300 km diameter.
In this case, Chandrayaan-3 was discovered to have touched down inside a crater with a diameter of roughly 160 kilometers. The crater was visible in the photos as a nearly semi-circular shape.
On August 23, 2023, the Chandrayaan-3 made a gentle landing on the south pole of the Moon. The mission is the only one to have touched down on the lunar south face. Three days later, the government renamed the landing spot Shiv Shakti Point.
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