NEW DELHI, Aug 31 India's Pragyan lander has confirmed the presence of sulfur on the moon with yet another experiment, the Indian Space Research Organization announced on X (formerly Twitter).
Earlier, the space agency reported that it had detected sulfur and metals such as calcium, iron, chromium and others on the moon using a laser spark emission spectrometry instrument.
«An alpha particle X-ray spectrometer has detected sulfur as well as other minor elements. This discovery, made by Chandrayan-3, forces scientists to develop new explanations for the source of sulfur in the area: internal, volcanic or meteoritic,» the representatives of the Indian space agency said.
The alpha particle X-ray spectrometer has the ability to analyze the elemental composition of the surface of planetary bodies with a small atmosphere, such as the Moon.
«It carries radioactive sources that emit alpha particles and X-rays onto a surface sample. The atoms present in the sample, in turn, emit characteristic X-ray lines corresponding to the elements present. By measuring the energy and intensity of these characteristic X-rays, researchers can determine those present.» elements and their content,» the agency said.
The spectrometer was developed by the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad with the support of the Center for Space Applications. As Anil Bhardwaj, director of the laboratory, said earlier, the results obtained using this device can change the understanding of the smallest changes in the distribution of the elemental composition of the region.
The automatic space station «Chandrayan-3» was launched into space on July 14 and entered the lunar orbit on August 5. On August 23, India was the first in the world to successfully land the Vikram spacecraft, which had previously separated from the Chandrayaan-3 station, at the south pole of the moon. The mission of the descent vehicle is designed for 14 Earth days, which corresponds to one lunar day. However, Indian scientists do not exclude the possibility that the Vikram lander and the Pragyan lunar rover will return to life when the sun again illuminates the part of the Moon where they are located.