Bengaluru: Indian Space Research Organisation on Thursday announced that Chandrayaan-2 has begun the spectroscopic of the lunar surface. ISRO on twitter, also shared the first illuminated image of the lunar surface clicked by Chandrayaan's payload IIRS.
Briefing about the proceduce, ISRO said Imaging Infrared Spectrometer (IIRS) on-board Chandrayaan-2 is designed to measure the reflected sunlight and emitted part of Moon light from the lunar surface in narrow and contiguous spectral channels.
The image realised by IIRS can see the variations and surface types namely, crater central peaks (e.g., Stebbins), crater floors (e.g., Stebbins and Sommerfield), very fresh reworked ejecta associated with small craterlets within the crater floor of a large crater (e.g., Sommerfield) and also the sun-illuminated inner rims of craters (e.g., Kirkwood).
Describing about the first illuminated image of the lunar surface, which acquired by IIRS. ISRO says, “The image covers part of the lunar farside in the northern hemisphere, few prominent craters are seen in the image.”
“IIRS could successfully measure the variations in the reflected solar radiation that bounces off the lunar surface from different kinds of surface types. The variations in the spectral radiance are primarily due to the mineralogical/compositional variations that exist in the lunar surface and also due to the effect of space weathering,” further added.
More detailed analysis that follows, is expected to yield important results on the heterogeneity of lunar surface composition, said ISRO.
