From Rajasthan's heat to Kashmir's cold: Chandrayaan-3 finds massive variation in Moon's South Pole temperature

Chennai: ISRO has released the first observations of the Chandrayaan-3's Lander payload--ChaSTE--measuring the temperature on the Moon's South Polar Region where it soft landed on August 23, making India the first Nation to achieve this monumental feat.

ISRO posted in X : Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Here are the first observations from the ChaSTE payload onboard Vikram Lander.

ChaSTE (Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment) measures the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole, to understand the thermal behaviour of the moon's surface.

It has a temperature probe equipped with a controlled penetration mechanism capable of reaching a depth of 10 cm beneath the surface. The probe is fitted with 10 individual temperature sensors, it said and released a graph that illustrated temperature variations of the lunar surface, near-surface at various depths as recorded during the probe's penetration.

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Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
Here are the first observations from the ChaSTE payload onboard Vikram Lander.

ChaSTE (Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment) measures the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole, to understand the thermal behaviour of the moon's… pic.twitter.com/VZ1cjWHTnd

— ISRO (@isro) August 27, 2023 >

ISRO said "The presented graph illustrates the temperature variations of the lunar surface/near-surface at various depths, as recorded during the probe's penetration. This is the first such profile for the lunar south pole. Detailed observations are underway.

The payload is developed by a team led by the Space Physics Laboratory (SPL), "Chandrayaan-3's ChaSTE tool on Vikram Lander is studying the moon's south pole temperature. It can check up to 10 cm deep with 10 sensors. Basically, we're seeing how cold or hot the moon's top layer is at the pole. This is a first! Moon's South Pole Temperature (Day) #Chandrayaan3 @isro", one of the posts in ISRO twitter page, said.

On temperatures in Lunar's south pole, it said "Surface : 50°C Below 8cm from surface : - 10°C Chandrayaan 3 just dropped the result of one of the science experiment. Drastic decrease in temp indicates how insulative lunar soil is, which gives another hope for the possibility of ice". (UNI)