India is making space history. At the end of August, shortly after landing near the Moon’s south pole, India’s Chandrayaan-3 probe sent back the first images of the hidden side of Earth’s only natural satellite. A week later, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument onboard the probe had identified surface chemicals in the region for the first time. Using laser pulses, the device unequivocally recorded sulfur and preliminarily detected aluminum, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen. The mission made India the fourth country to reach the surface of the Moon, after the USA, China, and Russia. In early September, India launched Aditya-L1, its first solar observation mission, which will travel 1.5 million kilometers in four months. If the mission is successful, India will be one of the few countries studying the Sun. Japan launched a solar probe in 1981, and NASA and the European Space Agency have been observing the Sun since the 1990s (ISRO, August 28; BBC, September 2).
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After the Moon, the Sun
Artist’s depiction of Aditya-L1 approaching its objective
Isro
