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ISRO<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Moon\u2019s south pole was once covered in an ocean of liquid molten rock, according to scientists.<\/p>\n The findings back up a theory that magma formed the Moon’s surface around 4.5 billion years ago.<\/p>\n Remnants of the ocean were found by India\u2019s historic Chandrayaan-3 mission that landed on the south pole last August.<\/p>\n The mission explored this isolated and mysterious area where no craft had ever landed before. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The findings help back up an idea called the Lunar Magma Ocean theory about how the Moon formed.<\/p>\n Scientists think that when the Moon formed 4.5 billion years ago, it began to cool and a lighter mineral called ferroan anorthosite floated to the surface. This ferroan anorthosite – or molten rock – formed the moon\u2019s surface. <\/p>\n The team behind the new findings found evidence of ferroan anorthosite in the south pole.<\/p>\n \u201cThe theory of early evolution of the Moon becomes much more robust in the light of our observations,\u201d said Dr Santosh Vadawale from the Physical Research Laboratory, who is co-author of the paper published in Nature on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Before India\u2019s mission, the main evidence of magma oceans was found in the mid-latitudes of the Moon as part of the Apollo programme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Prof Vandawale and his team were at mission control during Chandrayaan-3.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were really exciting times. Sitting in the control room, moving the rover around on the lunar surface – that was really a once-in-a-lifetime experience,\u201d says Prof Vadawale.<\/p>\n When India’s lander, called Vikram, made its celebrated soft landing on the south pole last August, a rover called Pragyaan drove out of the craft.<\/p>\n Pragyaan rambled around the lunar surface for 10 days, while Prof Vadawale and his colleagues worked around the clock instructing it to collect data at 70 degree south latitude.<\/p>\n The robot was built to withstand swings of temperature between 70C and -10C, and could make its own decisions about how to navigate the uneven and dusty lunar surface.<\/p>\n It took 23 measurements with an instrument called an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer. This basically excites atoms and analyses the energy produced in order to identify the minerals in the Moon\u2019s soil.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The team of scientists also found evidence of a huge meteorite crash in the region four billion years ago.<\/p>\n The crash is thought to have made the South Pole\u2013Aitken basin, which is one of the largest craters in the solar system, measuring 2,500 km across.<\/p>\n It is about 350km from the site India\u2019s Praygam rover explored.<\/p>\n But the scientists detected magnesium, which they believe was from deep inside the Moon, thrown up from the crash and propelled over the surface.<\/p>\n \u201cThis would have been caused by a big impact of an asteroid, throwing out material from this big basin. In the process, it also excavated a deeper part of the Moon,\u201d said Professor Anil Bhardwaj, director of India\u2019s Physical Research Laboratory.<\/p>\n The findings are just some of the scientific data collected during the Chandrayaan-3 mission which eventually hopes to discover ice water on the South Pole.<\/p>\n That discovery would be a game-changer for space agencies\u2019 dreams of building a human base on the Moon.<\/p>\n India plans to launch another mission to the Moon in 2025 or 2026 when it hopes to collect and bring back to Earth samples from the lunar surface for analysis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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