Bangalore. The Lunar Atmosphere Combination Investigator-2 (CHASE-2) spectrometer on board the Chandrayaan-2 mission has made the first ever observation of the global distribution of Argon-40 in the outer thin layer of the Moon’s atmosphere. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) gave this information.
ISRO said in a statement on Tuesday that these observations shed light on the dynamics of the Moon’s outer atmosphere (exosphere) and radioactive activities in the initial few meters below the Moon’s surface. The ‘exosphere’ is the outermost region of a celestial body’s upper atmosphere where constituent molecules and particles rarely collide with each other.
According to the statement, there are some gases that play an important role in understanding the process of interaction between the surface and the exosphere, and Argon-40 (AR-40) is one such investigator to study the dynamics of the outer layer of the Moon. can go Ar-40 originates from the radioactive fission of potassium-40 (K-40) present beneath the surface of the Moon. According to ISRO, CHASE-2 observations provide information on the diurnal and spatial variation of AR-40 spread over the equatorial and mid-latitude regions of the Moon.