Quake on Moon? Chandrayaan-3's Vikram Lander detects 'natural' seismic movement

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said that Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram Lander has recorded a “natural event”, indicating seismic activity on the Moon’s surface near the South Pole.

The seismic activity-detecting equipment — The Instrument for the Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) payload — on board the lander also detected vibrations taking place due to the movements of the mission's Pragyan rover and other payloads, the ISRO said on Thursday (Aug 31).

"Instrument for the Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) payload on Chandrayaan 3 Lander -- the first Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology-based instrument on the moon -- has recorded the movements of Rover and other payloads," the Indian space agency said in a post on micro-blogging site X.

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Source being probed

"It has recorded an event, appearing to be a natural one, on August 26, 2023. The source of this event is under investigation," it added.

ILSA's primary objective is to measure ground vibrations generated by natural quakes, impacts, and artificial events.

Earlier in the day, ISRO reported that the radio anatomy of the Moon-bound hypersensitive ionosphere and atmosphere-Langmuir probe (RAMBHA-LP) payload, also onboard the Chandrayaan-3 lander, has achieved a groundbreaking feat.

RAMBHA-LP conducted the first-ever measurements of the near-surface lunar plasma environment over the south polar region, indicating that the plasma density near the lunar surface is relatively sparse.

The measurements garnered by RAMBHA-LP hold promising implications for various aspects of lunar exploration.

This means that there are not many electrons in this region of space, ISRO posted on X.

The data has ground-breaking implications as the thinness of lunar plasma affects the way radio waves travel through space.

Radio waves are affected by the presence of plasma—the denser the plasma, the more the radio waves are scattered.

The sparseness of lunar plasma means that radio waves can propagate through space with less attenuation, which is important for communication between lunar missions, ISRO said.

Chandrayaan-3 mission

Chandrayaan-3 mission has made Indiathe first nation to land a spacecraft on the unexplored South Pole of the moon and just the fourth nation to land on Earth's lunar satellite. The Wednesday (August 23)landing came just days after Russia's Luna-25 failed in a similar mission.

The rover and Vikram, the lander that transported Pragyan to the Moon, are rushing to complete their experiments before the upcoming lunar night, which spans 14 Earth days and is expected to commence next week.Over the period of its two-week lifespan, rover Pragyan will amble around the relatively unmapped South Pole and transmit images and scientific data to Earth.

(With inputs from agencies)

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