First ever photos of the Moon’s south pole released

History has been made.

Yesterday (Wednesday, 23 August) news emerged that India had made history, becoming the first nation in the world to successfully land on the Moon’s south pole. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) later shared an image taken by the moon lander’s imaging camera just three hours after its initial touchdown. The photo shows a seemingly flat region on the moon’s surface with the craft’s leg and a shadow visible in the corner. ISRO also shared an additional four photographs taken by the lander’s horizontal velocity camera, showing the rough surface of the Moon’s south pole during the craft’s descent.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: The image captured by the Landing Imager Camera after the landing.

It shows a portion of Chandrayaan-3's landing site. Seen also is a leg and its accompanying shadow. Chandrayaan-3 chose a relatively flat region on the lunar surface ?… pic.twitter.com/xi7RVz5UvW — ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023

Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar exploration mission under the ISRO programme, consists of a lander named Vikram and a rover known as Pragyan. The lander, which has been in orbit for two weeks, finally touched down on the lunar south on Wednesday afternoon. It then released the rover which has been exploring the region since. The technology onboard both the lander and the rover will study the south pole for one lunar day, which is the equivalent of two weeks here on Earth. Updates of the mission’s progress will be shared by ISRO as and when they come about. One small step for Vikram, one giant leap for humanity.

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