The moon's surface was once covered with the ocean of magma, scientists revealed.
According to BBC, the historic Chandrayaan-3 mission of India that landed on the South Pole of the moon in August 2023 found traces of magma on the lunar surface.
As per the study published in the journal Nature, the south pole was bathed in magma in ancient times.
The findings of the scientists backed the Lunar Magma Ocean theory, which says that the lunar surface was formed by magma around 4.5 million years ago.
Dr. Santosh Vadawale from the Physical Research Laboratory and co-author of the research said, “The theory of early evolution of the Moon becomes much more robust in the light of our observations.”
Researchers believed that when the moon began to cool after its formation 4.5 million years ago, a lighter and molten mineral rock called ferroan anorthosite made its surface.
Moreover, Indian astronomers, after landing on the moon, drove out a robot dubbed Pragyaan to collect the samples from the moon surface.
Pragyaan roamed around the moon for 10 days and took 23 measurements.
To note, Chandrayaan-3 was the first mission to land on the unexplored south pole of the moon.
