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| Chandrayaan-1 confirms lunar magma ocean hypothesis |
| Press Trust of India / Panaji Sep 02, 2009, 16:44 IST |
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India's maiden moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, in one of its vital findings, has endorsed the lunar magma ocean hypothesis, helping the scientists better understand the history of the satellite, a NASA scientist said here today.
Speaking at an international conference here, Carle Pieters, a professor at the US-based Brown University, who was associated with the Chandrayaan as a moon mineral mapper, said, visual confirmation of anorthite — a rich calcium plagioclase — on the upper lunar surface had virtually endorsed the magma ocean hypothesis.
According to the giant impact hypothesis, a large amount of energy was liberated in the formation of moon due to which a huge portion of the body was once completely molten, forming a lunar magma ocean.
"Plagioclase rose to the surface of the moon because of its lighter density and lack of iron. This happened when the moon's crust cooled, after its violent and turbulent beginning," Pieters, who is also associated with a NASA spectroscopy programme at the University, said.
She said the mission had further helped to observe and analyse the spread and formation of minerals on the moon and to understand the history of moon better.
Expressing hope that Chandrayaan would help peg the possibility of mineral ore exploitation in future, she said, "Such research will enable us to know about the minerals on the moon, which could be utilised in the long term."
"All this information will help us to understand better the history of the moon, which is already the model for all terrestrial planets," Pieters said.
Moon is a young planet, which also gives us an insight into how other planets could have evolved when they were younger, she said.
Pieters presented a paper on the Initial scientific results of the moon mineralogy mapper on Chandrayaan: volatiles on the moon, at a low cost planetary missions conference here.
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