NASA’s LRO – the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter – spacecraft imaged the Chandrayaan-3 landing site on the Moon’s surface.
The LROC (short for LRO Camera) acquired an oblique view (42-degree slew angle) of the lander four days later. The bright halo around the vehicle resulted from the rocket plume interacting with the fine-grained regolith (soil).
In the image shared by NASA, one can see Chandraayan-3’s Vikram lander in the centre of the image. The dark shadow of Vikram is visible against a bright halo surrounding the lander.
The bright halo was created as a result of the landing module’s rocket plume reacting with the fine-grained lunar regolith or lunar soil.
The ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the Moon on Aug. 23, 2023. The Chandrayaan-3 landing site is located about 600 kilometers from the Moon’s South Pole.
