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India's Chandrayaan-3 mission, a testament to the country's growing prowess in space exploration, has successfully landed on the Moon's south pole, marking a historic achievement. The mission's Pragyan rover, deployed from the Vikram lander, has begun its exploration of a 3.85-billion-year-old crater, one of the oldest on the lunar surface. This landing site, situated in a unique geological setting, is unprecedented, having never been explored by any previous mission. The images captured by the rover, the first on-site visuals of this latitude on the Moon, provide invaluable insights into the evolution of our celestial neighbor.
The chosen landing site, located within a crater measuring approximately 160 kilometers in diameter, holds significant scientific interest. The crater itself formed during the Nectarian period, a pivotal epoch in the Moon's history dating back roughly 3.85 billion years. Analysis of the images revealed that one half of the crater has been buried beneath ejecta, material expelled from the impact that created the South Pole-Aitken basin, the largest known impact basin on the Moon. This discovery underscores the intricate interplay of impacts and geological processes shaping the lunar landscape.
Further examination of the images captured by the Pragyan rover unveiled additional insights. Material ejected from a separate impact crater located further away was observed near the landing site, indicating the deposition of material from diverse lunar regions. The presence of this ejecta, coupled with the partially buried crater, paints a compelling picture of the dynamic geological history of the Moon. These findings, gleaned from the Chandrayaan-3 mission, contribute to our understanding of the Moon's formation, evolution, and the processes that shaped its surface over billions of years.
Source: Chandrayaan-3 rover lands in 3.85-billion-year-old crater on the Moon