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Mahesh

09/03/22 09:07 AM IST

Chandrayaan-2 orbiter makes new discovery

In News 
  • An equipment onboard India’s 2017 Chandrayaan-2 orbiter has made new observations about the distribution of an important gas in the moon’s upper atmosphere, which can offer new insights into the lunar surroundings.
Details 
  • New data from Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2) mass spectrometer on Chandrayaan-2 show the distribution of Argon-40 gas in the lunar ‘exosphere’, beyond the areas this was known to exist.
  • 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.
  • 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.
About Chandrayaan-2 

  • Chandrayaan 2 Mission was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space on July 22, 2019, by GSLV Mk III-M1.
  • The main aim of Chandrayaan 2 was to trace the location and abundance of lunar water on the moon’s surface.
  • 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.
Source- Indian Express

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