India, which earned the title of the first country to land on the Moon's south pole in August, may now have recorded the first seismic data on the celestial body since the 1970s.
The activity was recorded by the Instrument for the Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) mounted on the Vikram lander.
If this activity is confirmed to be natural seismic data, it could provide significant and new information about the Moon's interior.
On the other hand, scientists have not yet ruled out the possibility that the recorded activity was caused by a meteorite impact.
According to a report in Independent Türkçe, a statement from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) noted: "The primary objective of ILSA is to measure ground vibrations generated by natural quakes, impacts, and artificial events."
Vibrations were recorded during the lander's navigation maneuver on August 25, 2023. There is also an activity recorded on August 26, 2023, which appears to be natural. The source of this event is currently under investigation.
To date, the best seismic data we have captured on the Moon was collected by the Apollo program in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Although it has only been a few weeks since it landed on the Moon, India's spacecraft has already carried out a series of scientific observations.
It was recently announced that the craft had detected the first elements at the Moon's south pole.
The spacecraft has been put into sleep mode these days, as the region where it landed has entered darkness. This "night" will last approximately 14 days.
Like the spacecraft before it, India's mission runs on solar energy. This means that switching to sleep mode is necessary when batteries cannot be charged sufficiently.
The mission's instruments will wake up on September 22 and resume their explorations of the Moon's mysterious south pole.
News Source: 12punto
