New Chandrayaan-3 Results Show Something Unusual Is Happening On Moon

on 23rd August 2023 India scripted history with his chreon 3 mission it became the fourth Nation to land on the moon and the first on the lunar South Pole within a short period of just a couple of weeks the vicron Lander and the pron Rover made groundbreaking discoveries in the region of the Moon that no Nation had ever visited however the most intriguing event was recorded 3 days after chandron 3 landed on the moon the mission instrument for lunar seismic activity or ilsa recorded a potential moonquake moonquakes as the name suggests or seismic Tremors that occur on the moon these lunar Quakes are a fascinating phenomenon that has captured the interest of scientists and researchers for decades the first moonquakes were detected during the Apollo missions in the early 1970s and the Tremors recorded by the chandron 3 mission could be the first moonquake recorded in over half a century but why is the detection of these tremors so important for scientists what other discoveries did the chreon 3 mission make on the South Pole of the Moon finally and most importantly what is that one significant thing that chandron 3 just like previous missions has failed to find on the lunar [Music] surface to understand why the Chandon 3 mission was so critical it's important to know where exactly it landed on the Moon the Moon has a near side and a Far Side the near side refers to the portion of the Moon that is visible from Earth this side of the moon always faces our planet and it is the side that humans have visited during various lunar missions The Far Side of the Moon is the side that is not visible from Earth we can't see this because the Moon is tidally locked with our planet meaning it rotates on its axis at the same rate it orbits Earth Earth taking approximately 27.3 days to complete both actions just one spacecraft is soft landed on the far side of the moon it's China's Chang E4 Mission the point where chandron 3 landed now called the shiv shock D point lies about 600 km away from the South Pole of the Moon the coordinates of the shiv shock t Point are 69.3 de South and 32.3 de East which means that the Lander was still on the near Side of the Moon which we can see from our planet but these coordinates also POS three severe challenges to the mission the first was the rough terrain the South Pole is the most rugged and mountainous region of the Moon with large craters deep trenches and steep slopes this makes it difficult to find a suitable Landing site and to ensure a safe and controlled touchdown the second was the Perpetual Darkness due to the moon's axial tilt and deep craters near the South Pole there are regions that receive very little sunlight the sun hovers just above the Horizon during daytime and this limited sunlight makes it difficult to power solar panels and generate the necessary energy for a mission some areas near the South Pole have not received sunlight for more than a billion years finally the temperatures at the South Pole can drop to as low as - 230° c or - 382 de F during the lunar night this can damage electronic components and make it difficult to keep spacecraft warm chandron 3 was designed to last 14 Earth days or one lunar daylight period in these two weeks the Indian Mission has made some significant discoveries on the moon chreon 3's trail of discoveries began with the lunar atmosphere the moon has a very thin atmosphere known as an EXO spere it is so thin that it is almost considered a vacuum the pressure of the lunar exosphere is around 0.3 nanop pascals which is about one trillionth of the pressure of Earth's atmosphere at sea level mixed on the upper edge of the exosphere is a tenuous secondary layer the ionosphere created by sunlight that energizes atoms in the exosphere instruments on board the vicron Lander made the first density and temperature measurements of the ionosphere it was found that the 100 km thick layer of electrically charged plasma surrounding the lunar surface near its South Pole is relatively sparse the plasma density lies somewhere between 5 million to 30 million electrons per cubic meter further the density varies as the lunar day progresses the density of an ionosphere plays a crucial role in radio communication the higher the electron density the longer radio signals take to travel through the ionosphere so now if the plasma is quite sparse the potential delays would be minimal eventually it would not pose a problem for transmission and navigation systems if humans were to inhabit the moon in the future furthermore the Lander made an interesting Discovery just below the surface of the Moon a temperature probe containing 10 sensors reached 10 cm below the surface a preliminary analysis of the data collected by this probe found that during the day the temperature at the surface is around 60° or 140° F but it dramatically drops as we go deeper into the surface the temperature dips to about -10° C or 14° F just 8 cm below the lunar surface that's a drop of around 70° C in just 8 cm such striking temperature variation indicates that the moon's top soil is a powerful thermal insulator this further adds to the idea that it can be used to build future habitats for astronauts to Shield them from freezing conditions and harmful radiation on the moon the next notable event occurred on 26th August 3 days after the historic Landing the instrument for lunar seismic activity detected a potential Moon Quake Quakes on the moon can happen due to three main reasons the first is an impact event when meteoroids or asteroids hit the moon creating seismic waves then the gravitational pole of the Earth and the Sun can create tidal forces that cause the moon to flex and deform causing moonquakes the third reason could be the extreme temperature variations on the surface of the Moon which can lead to Thermal stress seismic events moonquakes are very different from earthquakes they can last from a few seconds to as long as an hour also they occur in clusters this is unprecedented and it suggests that something is happening inside the Moon that is triggering these events in recent years scientists have come up with two potential explanations for these vibration on the moon one possibility is that the Moon is shrinking as the moon cools it contracts which put stress on the interior this stress can eventually lead to the formation of cracks and faults which can then trigger moonquakes another possibility is that the Moon is being heated up from the inside out this could be caused by the decay of radioactive elements in the moon's core if the moon is getting hotter it could lead to Melting and the formation of magma Pockets triggering moonquakes scientists are still trying to determine the origin of the seismic event that chreon 3 detected it's the first Quake detected in over 50 years and could contribute to studying the origin and the interior of the Moon the next big Discovery came from the pagon Rover's laser induced breakdown spectrometer or lib to analyze a substance Libs fires laser pulses at a sample which then vaporizes the substance into plasma the instrument then picks up the light emitted from that plasma and analyzes the wavelengths to determine what elements lie within Libs detected aluminum calcium chromium iron manganese oxygen titanium and silicon but the element that caught everyone's attention was sulfur one of the theories regarding the presence of water on the moon involves a process called cold trapping in the extremely cold and shadowed regions of the moon's polar craters temperatures can drop significantly in these frigid environments water vapor can migrate and become trapped in the form of water ice on the lunar surface when water ice freezes it can trap small amounts of other molecules including sulfur so high energy radiation may have caused the breakdown of water ice thereby releasing ing sulfur besides that sulfur is a prime element associated with volcanic activity making its presence essential for understanding the moon's geology in history so far no Orbiter crossing over the moon's South Pole has ever detected sulfur here which makes this detection even more intriguing despite all the groundbreaking discoveries that the Vic Grom Lander and the pagon Rover made on the moon there's something important that the mission failed to find and that is water ice in 2008 the moon minerology mapper or the M3 instrument aboard India's chreon 1 detected absorption features associated with hydroxy or water bearing molecules in the polar regions of the Moon the data collected by the mission was analyzed for over a decade in 2018 a team of scientists used the instrument data to identify three signatures that definitively prove there is water ice at the surface of the Moon yet the pron Rover like many other missions in the past hasn't found direct evidence of water ice on the lunar surface the detection of sulfur is indirect evidence that may have other implications as well so the question is where is the water ice that chandry on one detected in 2008 there are two possible explanations to this question the first is that the prag Yon Rover was not at the right place at the right time besides confirming the presence of water ice the 2018 study also found that ice deposits are paty distributed at the southern pole most of the ice is concentrated at lunar craters while the northern Pole's ice is more widely but sparsely spread so it's possible that Vic ROM landed at a place where there was simply no water ice present the second explanation comes from one of the discoveries of chreon 3 itself the chass te payload aboard vcam Lander registered a sharp dip in the temperature just below the lunar surface a dip of around 70° C or 126° F just 8 cenm below the surface suggest that the lunar soil is a poor conductor of heat this means that the best place to look for water ice is not on the moon's surface but beneath it chandron 3 had a planned Mission duration of two weeks or one lunar daylight time any contact with the Lander and the Rover after that period would have been a bonus the Indian space agency continued trying to reestablish contact after the lunar night ended but there was no response the mission was considered a success it achieved its primary objective of making a soft landing on the moon and it collected a lot of valuable data during its descent the lunar South Pole is the most resourceful region of of the Moon and India's chandron 3 has provided a treasure Trove of data on the same India is now working on chandron 4 in collaboration with Japan the mission will comprise a Lander and a Rover that will extensively explore the lunar South Pole aiming to make a direct observation of The elusive water ice on the moon astronomy is a beautiful subject but sadly it's not taught in most schools worldwide so if you want to learn about this subject at any level you should check out this video's sponsor brilliant.org brilliant is the best way to learn math physics data science and computer science interactively all you need to do is set your course and Brilliant will design a perfect learning path for you so whatever your skill level brilliant will customize content to fit your needs and let you solve at your own pace moreover new lessons are added every month in their astrophysics course you can learn about about how the universe works through meticulously designed lessons this course beautifully takes you from the basics such as lessons on gravity matter radiation and the forces in nature to Advanced topics such as supernovas dark energy black holes and Interstellar travel what's even more remarkable is that you get to solve astrophysical problems in every lesson and if you get stuck somewhere brilliant provides a detailed explanation of that part of the course so if you you want to try everything that brilliant has to offer for free for a period of 30 days visit brilliant.org the secrets of the universe or click on the link in the description the first 200 of you to sign up through that link will get 20% off brilliant's annual premium subscription so thanks to brilliant for sponsoring this video and thanks to you for watching

Channel: The Secrets of the Universe

Views: 2,181,797

Keywords:

Id: or6GGnNqop8

Length: 13min 54sec (834 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 27 2023