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The Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission, which landed on the Moon’s south pole last year, has now obtained data that supports the theory that Earth’s satellite was once covered by an ocean of magma, as per a PTI report.
Citing an analysis published in the journal Nature, the report said that data from ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 supports the theory that a ‘magma ocean’ once existed on the Moon’s surface.
What did the analysis reveal?
The analysis looked at lunar soil measurements and samples recorded and collected at multiple points along a 100-metre track on the moon’s surface by Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan rover. The rover was deployed by the mission’s Vikram lander, which made a soft landing near the moon’s south pole on August 23, 2023.
The authors of the Nature study also included those from the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory. The authors pointed out that NASA’s Apollo and the then Soviet Union’s Luna missions relied primarily on soil samples from the equatorial and mid-latitude regions of the Moon, respectively, while Pragyan’s data came from the Moon’s south pole.
He said the samples show that the lunar soil is made up of a single type of rock — ferroan anorthosite, or FAN — and the results are similar to those obtained from equatorial and mid-latitude regions.
He said the similar composition of samples taken from geographically distant locations supports the theory that the surface of the Moon was covered by an ocean of magma. He said the ‘magma ocean’ hypothesis is a widely accepted scenario for the early evolution of the Moon.
The ‘Magma Ocean’ Hypothesis
This hypothesis offers a possible explanation for how the Moon’s crust, mantle, and core formed.
This suggests that the Moon was formed as a result of a collision between two protoplanets (the stage before planet formation) – with the larger planet becoming Earth, while the Moon was the smaller one. As a result, the Moon became very hot, causing its entire mantle to melt into a ‘magma ocean’, the theory suggests.
It further states that as the Moon was forming, it cooled, low-density FANs floated to the surface, while heavier minerals sank down and formed the mantle, which lies beneath the crust. Therefore, the theory holds that the Moon’s crust is largely made up of FANs.
Is there an alternative scenario?
The analysis also found that Pragyan also detected magnesium in the lunar soil, which could disprove the lunar magma ocean (LMO) hypothesis. The authors also said that this hypothesis has been questioned by some studies based on recent re-analysis of several samples obtained during the Apollo missions.
“Although alternative scenarios exist, the APXS-measured structure, its uniformity on a regional scale, and the geological context support the LMO hypothesis,” they wrote.
The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer or APXS mounted on the Pragyan rover was used to collect information about elements in the soil around the Chandrayaan-3 landing site, named ‘Shiva Shakti Point’, on August 26, 2023.
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