Their Discovery Will Change How We Explore the Moon

Bright Side

Did you hear about that Indian spacecraft that landed on the Moon? It was a big deal 'cause it hit the south pole, which had never been done before. The rover and lander found some cool stuff, like clues about the Moon's makeup and history, which is gonna be super helpful for future missions. But get this: they didn't find any water up there, even though that was the main goal. They thought the polar regions might have some 'cause they're super cold and shady. But hey, here's a twist - turns out, the best bet for finding water might be beneath the surface, not on top! That's some next-level discovery right there.  Credit:  CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/:  Simeon Schmauß:  Pragyan rampdown, https://flic.kr/p/2oZUSxx  Pragyan turn, https://flic.kr/p/2oZS83X  Landing video, https://flic.kr/p/2oYUhnn  Yutu-2: Kevin Gill, https://flic.kr/p/2m15iiU  ChangE-4: CSNA/Siyu Zhang/Kevin M. Gill, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ChangE-4_-_PCAM.png  Aitken Kagu big: Ittiz, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aitken_Kagu_big.jpg Traditional Sulfur Miners: Emjeha, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Traditional_Sulfur_Miners_at_Kawah_Ijen.jpg  Indian Space Research Organisation:  Chandrayaan-3, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chandrayaan-3_%E2%80%93_Image_of_Vikram_lander_on_lunar_surface_taken_by_Pragyan_rover_navcam_at_1104_IST,_30_August_2023_from_15_meters_away_(without_text).webp  Chandrayaan-2, https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:GSLV_Mk_III_M1,_Chandrayaan-2_-_Pragyan_rover_mounted_on_the_ramp_of_Vikram_lander.jpg  NASA  NASA/ARC/MIT  NASA / Durham University / Jacob Kegerreis Animation is created by Bright Side.  #brightside   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Listen to Bright Side on:  Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/idhttps-podcasts-apple-com-podcast-bright-side/id1554898078 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brightside/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official/ Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/p/c6a1e38a-bff1-4a40-9731-2c8234ccb19f/1866144599336960  Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me

Transcript

00:00 Soon, we might start constructing loads of stuff on the Moon.

00:07 All because India's Moon mission has recently detected sulfur near the Moon's south pole.

00:14 This chemical element can come in extremely handy for creating infrastructure on our satellite.

00:21 It's the first time this chemical element has been discovered on Earth's natural satellite.

00:27 This sought-after element is mostly found near Earth's volcanoes.

00:32 Its appearance on the Moon speaks volumes about the satellite's volcanic history and

00:36 its past atmospheric conditions.

00:41 The mission's rover detected this chemical element less than a week after touching down

00:45 around 70 degrees from the Moon's south pole on the 23rd of August, 2023.

00:52 This historic landing on the lunar surface made India the fourth country to safely land

00:57 a mission on the Moon.

01:01 It's also the first spacecraft to touch down so close to the south pole of our satellite.

01:06 It's an area of strategic importance because it's believed to be home to deposits of water

01:11 ice.

01:12 If it turns out to be true, future missions might be able to harvest it and turn this

01:17 water ice into drinking water or even rocket fuel.

01:23 For two weeks, the lander carried out the data collection, mainly focused on the analysis

01:28 of the Moon's soil and its extremely thin atmosphere.

01:32 Meanwhile, the solar-powered Pragyan rover started its quest to find frozen water on

01:38 the Moon.

01:39 As for the lander, it demonstrated another amazing feat on the 3rd of September.

01:44 The spacecraft fired up its engines and lifted itself for about 16 inches into the air.

01:51 Then it made a tiny hop to land 12 to 16 inches away from its original position.

01:56 It's kinda a big deal!

02:00 Being able to get a lander back off the surface of the Moon is essentially for future missions,

02:04 showing that they can safely return soil samples or even astronauts back home after a lunar

02:10 mission.

02:13 In September, the Indian spacecraft was put into sleeping mode.

02:17 The 14-day-long lunar night was approaching, and the spacecraft wasn't designed to collect

02:23 scientific data during this period of time.

02:26 So far, we've learned about a few major findings of the mission.

02:31 One is related to measuring the temperature of the Moon's topsoil at different depths.

02:36 Intriguingly, the surface of the satellite in that region turned out to be hotter than

02:41 expected.

02:42 It was believed that the temperature could be between 68 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit on

02:48 the surface, but it was around 158 degrees Fahrenheit, way hotter than it should be!

02:55 The other discovery indicates the presence of several chemical elements, including oxygen.

03:01 Besides, the data received from the spacecraft confirms the presence of aluminum, calcium,

03:08 iron, titanium, silicon, and other chemical elements on the lunar surface close to the

03:14 South Pole.

03:16 The rover also used special instruments designed to measure quakes and rumbles beneath the

03:21 lunar surface to detect some seismic activity.

03:26 It brings us back to the sulfur detected thanks to the rover's spectroscope.

03:32 Scientists are currently working on figuring out whether this element formed on the surface

03:36 in a natural way, or whether it's the result of volcanic activity or a meteor strike.

03:44 Another astonishing thing found on the Moon is a rock, and it may be the oldest known

03:49 Earth rock.

03:51 A 0.7-inch-wide chip included in a large rock collection brought to our planet by Apollo

03:57 astronauts might actually be a 4-billion-year-old fragment of Earth!

04:04 This finding could help us paint a better picture of the intense pounding early Earth

04:09 got at the dawn of its life.

04:13 It could go like this.

04:14 Soon after the rock formed, an asteroid impact might have blasted it from Earth.

04:19 At that time, our planet's satellite was three times closer to Earth than it is today.

04:26 The collision was so powerful that this chunk of terrestrial rock found its way to the Moon.

04:31 Later, this fragment got engulfed in a lunar breccia, a motley kind of rock.

04:37 Eventually, the rock was brought back home to Earth by Apollo 14 astronauts.

04:43 Even though scientists had found meteorites coming from Mars and the Moon before, it was

04:47 the first time a rock from the Moon turned out to be a terrestrial meteorite.

04:52 They also found out that the rock had formed in a water-rich environment at temperatures

04:57 and pressures corresponding to those at around 12 miles beneath the surface of our planet.

05:04 In 2019, China's Chang'e-4 mission made history by landing on the far side of the

05:11 Moon.

05:12 The mission's rover helped researchers visualize structures hidden deep below the surface of

05:18 the satellite, revealing billions of years of lunar history.

05:22 The Yutu-2 rover made this discovery with the help of its lunar-penetrating radar.

05:28 It imaged deep into the Moon's surface and listened to echoes of sound bouncing back

05:33 off structures hidden from view under the surface of the Moon.

05:39 It turned out those structures were resting at depths of almost 1,000 feet!

05:44 The research suggests that the first 130 feet under the surface are made up of layers of

05:49 dust, soil, and rocks.

05:52 The instruments also discovered a concealed crater that must have formed after a large

05:56 object slammed into the Moon's surface.

06:00 Long long ago, ancient lava was likely to be flowing deep underground.

06:07 Researchers believe that the broken rocks around the formation might be debris produced

06:11 by the impact.

06:13 They also found that the volcanic rock layers were thinner the closer they were to the surface.

06:19 Such a thickness variation of lava flows might mean a decrease in the number and magnitude

06:25 of eruptions over time.

06:27 So lunar volcanic activity gradually dwindled since the Moon's formation around 4.5 billion

06:34 years ago.

06:37 On the far side of the Moon, there is one of the largest and oldest impact craters in

06:42 our solar system, the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

06:45 Unfortunately, from Earth, you can only see its outer rim, which looks like a huge chain

06:50 of mountains.

06:53 It's a ginormous 8-mile deep dent, stretching for more than 1,500 miles in diameter and

06:59 covering one-fourth of the Moon's surface.

07:04 Astronomers are sure that this crater appeared when an asteroid collided with the Moon around

07:09 4 billion years ago.

07:11 And now, look at this gigantic chunk of metal the size of four states of Connecticut.

07:17 As for its weight in pounds, it's enough to say that the number contains 18 zeros.

07:23 This mysterious mass is hidden about 180 miles under the Moon's surface, somewhere in the

07:29 middle of the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

07:33 It was discovered when GRAIL, which stands for NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory

07:39 mission gathered data about our natural satellite.

07:43 When examining this information, scientists noticed that in one place on the Moon's surface,

07:48 there was a weird change in gravity.

07:51 After researching this phenomenon, they included that something mysterious was weighing down

07:56 the basin floor there.

07:58 So far, researchers haven't figured out the origin of the bizarre lump, but there are

08:03 several theories.

08:06 One of them claims that the finding is a chunk of dense oxide, which appeared when the Moon

08:11 was just taking its shape.

08:13 At that time, the satellite was still covered with ancient oceans of magma, and the lump

08:17 could be formed at the final stages of its cooling.

08:21 However, most scientists support another theory, according to which the puzzling mass is part

08:27 of the giant asteroid that once created the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

08:32 Since the thing is metallic, it's probably the iron-nickel core of the asteroid.

08:38 There might be a labyrinth of lava tubes on the Moon.

08:42 Not so long ago, astronomers received the results of underground topography and discovered

08:47 a massive cave under the surface of Earth's satellite.

08:51 It could be the result of the lunar volcanic activity that happened more than 3 billion

08:56 years ago.

08:58 Tubes of lava hardened, creating a thick, hard crust on the outside.

09:04 But inside, it kept flowing, melting the rock and creating tunnels and caves.

09:10 Numerous small pits in the Moon's surface discovered by NASA seem to be the openings

09:15 to such lava tubes.

09:17 If this theory is confirmed, the underground tunnels might serve not only as a convenient

09:23 location for human-crewed space missions, but also as much-needed water sources for

09:28 astronauts.

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