ISRO’s Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2) payload on Chandrayaan-2 has detected Argon-40 from an altitude of around 100 km. It is one of the isotopes of the noble gas Argon and is an essential constituent of the lunar exosphere.
ISRO released several images gathered by Dual-Frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar of the rover that show different types of craters earlier this month. Argon-40 is an odorless, colorless gas used for industrial purposes. Such a discovery would be beneficial for scientists all over the world.
“Argon is an important constituent of the lunar exosphere. It originates from the radioactive disintegration of Potassium-40 (40K), which has a half-life of 1.2 X 109 years.” – ISRO
Despite the contact loss of the lander with the earth station minutes before the scheduled time for soft-landing on 7 September, the rover of the satellite continues going around the Moon and is completely functional.
