Chandrayaan-3, India’s historic mission to the south pole of the Moon, has found liquid molten rock on the lunar surface. This further solidifies the theory that the Moon’s surface was formed by magma some 4.5 billion years ago.
In August last year, India became the first-ever country to successfully reach the south pole of the Moon to study the area, which has remained mysterious for much of its history.
Scientists have long tried to gather evidence in favor of the Lunar Magma Ocean theory, according to which the Moon was initially covered by a deep and global layer of molten rock known as a magma ocean. The theory suggests that this ocean of molten material gradually began to cool, leading to the crystallization of various minerals. Denser minerals like olivine and pyroxene sank to form the Moon’s mantle, while lighter minerals such as anorthite floated to the surface to create the Moon’s initial crust.
The United States Apollo mission played a major role in supporting the theory by bringing back lunar rock samples, particularly anorthosite from the highlands and basalt from the magma. Now, this evidence has been further substantiated by India’s findings.
According to Dr. Santosh Vadawale, the new findings are a major step in proving the theory that the Moon’s surface was once made up of molten rock before its evolution to its current form.
India is planning to send its next mission to the Moon in 2025 or 2026, which will be tasked with collecting samples of the lunar surface and bringing it back to Earth for research purposes.
Chandrayaan-3 was launched under the supervision of aerospace engineer Palanivel Veeramuthuve, the project director, and it was telecasted live on the media. The stakes were high as their previous mission, Chandrayaan-2, lost contact with the control room just before touching down on the lunar surface in 2019, leading to emotional scenes back home.
The eventual goal of the Indian mission is to find the possibility of life on the Moon, which will only be possible if it manages to find frozen water on the Moon’s south pole.
In 2009, India’s first mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-1, found traces of water molecules, giving scientists hope that their dream of bringing life to the Moon might be realized in the near future. That mission crashed before its scheduled expiry, although the Indian space agency claimed that they had achieved over 95% of the objectives by the time of its crash.
