Chandrayaan-3 lander is in the center of the image, its dark shadow is visible against the bright halo surrounding the vehicle.
(NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University)
India’s lunar ambassadors, the Chandrayaan-3 lander Vikram and rover Pragyan, recently tucked themselves in and are presently ‘asleep’ at the Moon’s South pole to endure the lunar night’s freezing solitude.
But before they shut themselves off, the lander-rover duo kept us hooked with Pragyan playfully trudging around lunar craters, and Vikram ‘hopping’ to gracefully land on the Moon for a second time, all while attempting to unveil Moon’s deepest secrets.
In the meantime, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which had also been scanning the lunar landscape, seems to have spotted the lander’s antics And just four days after India’s historical Moon landing, its watchful eye captured a mesmerising ‘bird’s eye view’ of the Vikram lander by the Chandrayaan-3’s landing site.
The resulting image, recently shared by NASA, reveals a captivating sight: Vikram stands as a tiny but distinct speck amidst the treacherous lunar craters. Surrounding it is a luminous halo created by the rocket plume’s interaction with Moon’s fine-grained soil.
NASA has estimated that Chandrayaan-3’s historical landing site is a mere 600 kilometres from the Moon’s coveted South Pole!
The photographer behind this special picture, the LRO camera, has been collecting a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments for 15 years now. In fact, the camera also recently snapped a photograph of a new lunar crater which is possibly the impact site of Luna-25, Russia’s crashed lunar probe.
As for Pragyan and Vikram, they are eagerly awaiting the gentle touch of the lunar sunrise expected on September 22 to awaken, and hopefully embark on the next stage of their lunar adventure.
Until then, you can read more about their lunar exploits here.
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