Ancient Magma ocean discovered at Moon's South Pole

Scientists have uncovered evidence that the Moon’s south pole was once covered by a vast ocean of liquid molten rock, BBC reported.

This discovery supports the Lunar Magma Ocean theory, which posits that magma formed the Moon's surface around 4.5 billion years ago.

Indias Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon, which touched down in the south pole in August 2023, finally collected these findings. 

This historic mission aimed at reaching a location where no other spacecraft had ever successfully landed. The data collected by the mission strengthen the view that the early Moon, around 4.5 billion years ago started to cool and solidify, producing a lighter mineral called the ferroan anorthosite. 

This is a molten rock that gradually formed the outer surface of the moon. Dr Santosh Vadawale of Physical Research Laboratory, who is also the co-author of Nature, had also commented on the observation “The theory of early evolution of the Moon becomes much more robust in the light of our observations.” 

Until Chandrayaan-3, the findings of the existence of magma oceans were mainly identified from the mid-latitude areas that had been visited by the Apollo mission.

This was during the landing of Chandrayaan-3, Prof. Vadawale and his team at the mission control and commanding the rover Pragyaan, that mapped the lunar surface for 10 days. 

It operated under extreme cold and hot conditions and conducted chemical analysis on the lunar regolith using its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer.

Furthermore, the mission found signs of a massive meteorite impact that occurred approximately 4 billion years ago, which is thought to have formed the South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest impact basins on the lunar surface as well as in the solar system. 

This impact probably caused the ejection of material, such as magnesium, from the lunar interior. It is quoted from Professor Anil Bhardwaj from India’s Physical Research Laboratory stating that the impact “buried a part of the Moon.” 

It must also be noted that Chandrayaan-3 will also carry data for the identification of the Ice water present at Moon’s South pole, which is expected to open up a new area for Moon exploration and possible human colonisation. 

India is also fully prepared for another lunar mission to collect samples from the surface of the Moon in 2025 or 2026.