--- title: "Chandrayaan-2 records the first-ever mapping of the moon's sodium abundance." description: "The moon has an excess of sodium, which has been discovered for the first time by Chandrayaan-2 ." author: "Muskan Singh" published: 2022-10-10 canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/news/2110/chandrayaan-2-records-the-first-ever-mapping-of-the-moon-s-sodium-abundance category: "space and research" tags: ["technology", "moon", "space science", "science and technology"] reading_time: 2 minutes --- # Chandrayaan-2 records the first-ever mapping of the moon's sodium abundance. The moon has an excess of sodium, which has been discovered for the first time by Chandrayaan-2, a spacecraft that has been orbiting the moon since 2019. **The latest discoveries offer a way to investigate surface-exosphere interactions on the moon, which will help in the creation of models that are analogous for mercury and other airless worlds in [our solar system](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/35770/which-is-the-second-largest-moon-in-our-solar-system) [and beyond](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/336489/testing-strategies-in-java-unit-testing-integration-testing-and-beyond).** **The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter's X-ray spectrometer, known as 'CLASS,' first detected an excess of sodium** on the moon, according to the [**Indian Space Research Organization**](https://www.mindstick.com/news/1010/isro-s-debris-free-rockets-and-satellites), or ISRO. Isro announced in a statement that the Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (C1XS) discovered sodium from its distinctive line in X-rays, opening up the potential of mapping the sodium content of the Moon. The exceptional [sensitivity](https://www.mindstick.com/interview/2273/what-are-different-types-of-collation-sensitivity) and capability of the **Chandrayaan-2** **[Large Area](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/86560/the-concept-of-microwave-weapons-that-can-jam-signals-over-a-large-area) Soft X-ray Spectrometer, or CLASS, developed by the UR Rao Satellite Centre of Isro, enable it to produce clear signals of the sodium line.** According to a [recent study](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/36177/if-the-ganges-is-holy-why-can-t-it-clean-itself-and-who-are-we-to-do-that-a-recent-study-says-that-it-s-so-polluted-that-bathing-in-it-can-cause-skin-cancer), a portion of the signal might originate from a thin layer of sodium atoms that are weakly bonded to the lunar grains. If the **sodium atoms were a component of the lunar minerals, they would be more easily pushed out of the surface by [solar wind](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/35771/what-do-you-mean-by-the-solar-wind) or ultraviolet light.** Additionally, Chandrayaan-2 discovered a diurnal change in the surface sodium that would account for the exosphere's ongoing atomic supply. In addition, sodium was discovered in the moon's thin [atmosphere](https://www.mindstick.com/news/2058/robin-wordsworth-re-creates-the-atmosphere-of-ancient-mars), where atoms seldom ever collide. **According to ISRO, this area, known as the 'exosphere,' starts at the moon's surface and spans thousands of kilometres before merging with interplanetary space.** The Moon's ionosphere has a plasma density in the wake region that is at least one order of magnitude more than what is present on the day side, **Chandrayaan-2**, which is lingering in lunar orbit, has previously discovered. Since the spacecraft entered orbit in 2019, it has been examining the lunar surface. --- Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/news/2110/chandrayaan-2-records-the-first-ever-mapping-of-the-moon-s-sodium-abundance Copyright © MindStick Software Pvt. Ltd. This Markdown version is provided for developers, AI systems, and offline reading.