India's ambitiousChandrayaan-2 moon mission may have made a hard landing on the lunar surface in2019, but the orbiter accompanying it has been providing useful information toscientists back on Earth. And earlier this week, a research paper revealed thatthe Chandrayaan-2 orbiter confirmed the presence of water molecules (H2o) andhydroxyl (OH) on the surface of the moon.
The research paper,published in the journal 'Current Science', said, "The initial data fromIIRS shows widespread hydration and presence of unmodified hydroxyl (OH) andwater (H2O) molecules on the Moon between latitudes 29°N and 62°N." isclearly visible.'
It states thatplagioclase-rich rocks have been found to contain more OH (hydroxyl) orpossibly H2O (water) molecules than in the dark plains of the Moon.
'Chandrayaan-2' maynot get the results as expected, but this development related to it matters alot.
According to theresearchers, the formation of hydroxyl or water molecules occurs due to aprocess called space weathering, which is when the solar winds blow over thelunar surface.
It was also observedfrom the data that the brighter sunlit highland regions at higherlatitudes of the Moon were found to have higher hydroxyl or possibly watermolecules.
"The properinterpretation of hydration feature through spectral analysis is significant asit provides important inputs regarding the geology and geophysics of the mantlein terms of their mineralogy, chemical composition, rheology and solarwindinteraction," the researchers said in their paper.
India had sent itssecond lunar mission 'Chandrayaan-2' to the moon on 22 July 2019. However,the lander 'Vikram' in it was not successful in making a 'soft landing' in theSouth Pole region of the moon as planned on September 7 of the same year, dueto which India's dream of becoming the first country to land on the moon in thevery first attempt could not complete.