Article Posted on : - Apr 30, 2009

First image from Chandryaan-1.PTI Photo

BANGALORE (BNS): India’s moon mission Chandrayaan -1 has revealed direct evidence on the evolution of the moon, forty years after the American Apollo Mission (APM).

The Economic Times Thursday reported that several years after the American Appolo Mission, Chandrayaan-1 has revealed direct evidence on the formation of crusts/highlands on the Moon.

“The Indian mission through the Moon mineralogy mapper has offered proof that the Moon’s highlands were formed by the eruption of a hot liquid inside the Moon’s surface popularly known as magma. While it has been held that only the lowlands were formed by the magma, this new evidence suggests even the highlands were formed by a similar process, “it said.

“The hot liquid, magma, seems to have flowed on to the surface and taken the form of lava. The rocky remains that floated to the top appear to have transformed into the Moon’s highlands or mountains,” an ISRO scientist explained.

According to experts from Brown University, USA, the new images show the lunar surface in very fine detail. “The images are so clear that even the colours of the surface can be seen separately to indicate the formation of the highlands or the crust,” they said.

Investigators of NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper mission said, “The entire Inner Rook Mountains is of this character. It validates the magma ocean. The huge impact that formed the great Mare Orientale basin threw up those mountains.”

American Association of Science and NASA in a recent publication in the journal Science had appreciated the contribution of Indian space mission saying, “Nearly 40 years after Apollo, no one had directly and unequivocally confirmed the true nature of the lunar highlands.

Researchers from the Chandrayaan-1 mission have reported that they now have the final, direct proof.”