India's Lunar Rover Finds Evidence of the Moon's Ancient Magma Ocean

 In a breakthrough discovery, India's lunar rover "Pragyan" has unveiled evidence of the Moon's ancient global magma ocean. The findings, published in Nature by an Indian research team, mark the first-ever measurements from the Moon's polar highlands, broadening our understanding of the Moon's early history.

The Pragyan rover’s wheels penetrated several centimeters into the lunar soil, allowing the rover’s APXS instrument to analyze the composition of the lunar regolith below the top surface layer. Credit: ISRO

  • Around 4.5 billion years ago, a cataclysmic collision in the early solar system led to the formation of the Moon, which was once covered by a vast ocean of molten magma. This theory gained more robust backing after Pragyan's investigation of the rocks at the Vikram lander's site, now named "Point Shiv Shakti," located near the Moon's south pole.
  • The rover analyzed samples using an Alpha Particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS), revealing the presence of ferroan anorthosite. This mineral likely floated to the surface during the solidification of the magma ocean. The results align with samples collected from other lunar missions, confirming that this ocean extended across the Moon's surface.

The percentages of silicon, aluminum, calcium, iron, and magnesium found in the samples Pragyan analyzed are very similar to those of samples retrieved by Apollo 16. Credit: Astronomy, after Vadawale et al. (2024)

  • Interestingly, the analysis also detected materials from deeper within the Moon's crust, believed to have been brought up by meteorite impacts. This discovery highlights the importance of continuing lunar exploration to deepen our knowledge of the Moon and the broader solar system.

This achievement is a monumental step forward for India, showing the world that lunar exploration is no longer limited to the mid-20th-century space superpowers.


By:- Ranjan

#IndiaOnTheMoon, #MoonDiscovery, #LunarMagmaOcean, #PragyanRover, #VikramLander, #MoonExploration, #ShivShakti, #ScienceBreakthrough, #SpaceResearch, #Chandrayaan,

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