Chandrayaan-2 first mapped sodium abundance on the Moon.
Bangalore:
The CLASS X-ray spectrometer on Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter first identified an abundance of sodium on the moon, according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
He said the Chandrayaan-1 (C1XS) X-ray spectrometer detected sodium from its characteristic line in X-rays, opening up the possibility of determining the amount of sodium on the moon.
In a work recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Chandrayaan-2 first determined the sodium abundance on the moon using CLASS (Chandrayaan-2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer), the National Space Agency said Friday. . .
“CLASS was built at ISRO’s UR Rao Satellite Center in Bengaluru and provides a clear sodium channel signature due to its high sensitivity and performance,” the statement said.
The study found that some of the signal could come from the thin crust of sodium atoms that are loosely bound to the lunar grains.
These sodium atoms can be pushed off the surface by solar wind or ultraviolet radiation more easily than if they were part of the moon’s minerals. The claim explains that there is a diurnal variation in the sodium surface that would explain the continued supply of atoms to the exosphere, which maintains it.
An interesting aspect that has raised interest in this alkaline element is its presence in the Moon’s weak atmosphere, a region so thin that atoms are rarely encountered there.
The claim suggests that this region, called the “exosphere,” begins on the lunar surface and extends several thousand kilometers to merge into interplanetary space.
“The new results, from Chandrayaan-2, provide a way to study interactions of the Moon’s outer surface, which will help develop similar models for Mercury and other airless objects in our solar system and beyond,” ISRO said. .
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