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On 23 August 2023, India scripted history. With its Chandrayaan 3 mission, it became the fourth nation to land on the Moon and the first on the lunar south pole. Within a short period of just a couple of weeks, the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover made ground-breaking discoveries in the region of the Moon that no nation had ever visited. However, the most intriguing event was recorded three days after Chandrayaan 3 landed on the Moon: The mission's Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity or ILSA (ill-sa) recorded a potential moonquake. Moonquakes, as the name suggests, are seismic tremors that occur on the Moon. These lunar quakes are a fascinating phenomenon that has captured the interest of scientists and researchers for decades.
The first moonquakes were detected during the Apollo missions in the early 1970s, and the tremors recorded by the Chandrayaan-3 mission could be the first moonquake recorded in over half a century. But why is the detection of these tremors so important for scientists? What other discoveries did the Chandrayaan-3 mission make on the South Pole of the Moon? Finally, and most importantly, what is that one significant thing that Chandrayaan-3, just like previous missions, has failed to find on the lunar surface?
The 76th episode of the Sunday Discovery Series answers all these questions in detail.
Created By: Rishabh Nakra
Written By: Simran Buttar
Narrated By: Brian Pederson