India's Lunar Mission Finds Remnants of Magma Ocean on Moon
India's Lunar Mission Finds Remnants of Magma Ocean on Moon
The Facts
Ahead of the first anniversary of its successful landing on the south pole of the Moon, India's Chandrayaan-3 mission has uncovered evidence that a vast magma ocean may have once existed under the lunar surface.
According to a study published in Nature on Wednesday, Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan rover analyzed the moon's high-latitude region and collected the first samples of regolith (the layer of loose rock and dust particles above bedrock) from 23 locations using an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer.
The Spin
This discovery is a game-changer for spacefaring nations' dreams of ultimately building a human base on the moon. If ice water is also discovered on the moon's south pole, it will facilitate prebiotic chemistry that can produce and feed life and make deep-space expeditions to places like Mars possible.
This research is debatable because the Pragyan rover found more olivine elements than pyroxene elements on the lunar surface, contradicting the findings of previous missions. Moreover, the moon lacks plate tectonics — even if there's liquid water, it may lack the organic chemistry necessary to support life.
