New Delhi. India’s ‘Chandrayaan-3’ probably landed on one of the oldest ‘craters’ of the Moon. Scientists who analyzed the images received from missions and satellites have expressed this possibility. A pit on any planet, satellite or other celestial object is called ‘crater’. These ‘craters’ are formed by volcanic eruptions. Apart from this, ‘craters’ are also formed when a meteorite collides with another body.
Researchers from the Physical Research Laboratory and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said that the ‘crater’ on which the Moon has landed was formed during the ‘Nectarian period’. The ‘Nectarian Period’ dates back 3.85 billion years and is one of the oldest periods on the Moon.
‘Associate Professor’ S. in the Planetary Science Division of the Physical Research Laboratory. Vijayan told PTI, “The site where Chandrayaan-3 has landed is a unique geological place, where no other mission has reached. The pictures received from the mission’s rover are the first pictures of the Moon that have been taken by a rover present at this latitude. “These show how the Moon evolved over time.” When a star collides with the surface of a large body like a planet or the Moon, a crater is formed and the material displaced from it is called ‘ejecta’.
Vijayan, the author of the study published in the journal ‘Icarus’, said that “when you throw a ball on the sand, some part of the sand gets displaced or bounces outward and turns into a small pile”, ‘Ejecta’ is also in the same direction. It is formed like this. Chandrayaan-3 had landed on such a ‘crater’ – which is approximately 160 kilometers in diameter and photographs show it to be an almost semi-circular structure.
Researchers said it was possible? Half of it is in the crater and the other half may have been buried under the ejecta from the South Pole – ‘Aitken Basin’. Pragyan was landed on the lunar surface by Chandrayaan-3’s lander Vikram. This Chandrayaan, launched by ISRO, made a ‘soft landing’ near the south pole of the Moon on August 23, 2023. The place where Chandrayaan landed was named ‘Shiv Shakti Point’ on 26 August 2023.