NASA LRO Captures Images Of Chandraayan-3 Landing Site On Moon’s South Pole

By Pragativadi News Service On Sep 6, 2023

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.

Chandrayaan-3 lander is in the center of the image, its dark shadow is visible against the bright halo surrounding the vehicle. (Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University)

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.