Bangalore: India's dial of excitement has been turned up a notch.
India's proud space agency, ISRO, went on record on Friday to share that not only have they found water on the moon, but they found it first. A full three months ahead of NASA, to be exact.
"The moon impact probe when it was descending down, it has picked up signatures of water on the moon as it travelled from the lunar equator to the pole," beams Dr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO.
Here's what happened. In November last year, within a few days of Chandrayaan reaching the orbit of the moon, a special device called a Moon Impact Probe detached itself from the mother ship. The probe, which is the size of a computer monitor, plunged towards to the lunar surface, beaming back the first chemical signatures of water on the moon. It then crashed on the lunar surface, as it was designed to do, and landed near the Shakleton crater, the spot now renamed as the Jawahar Point as this feat was completed on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper found its first traces of water in February.
ISRO's India-First statement will remain a claim till the findings are published.
India's proud space agency, ISRO, went on record on Friday to share that not only have they found water on the moon, but they found it first. A full three months ahead of NASA, to be exact.
"The moon impact probe when it was descending down, it has picked up signatures of water on the moon as it travelled from the lunar equator to the pole," beams Dr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO.
NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper found its first traces of water in February.
Advertisement
COMMENTS
Advertisement
ISRO Launches EOS-08 Earth-Observing Satellite, Marks Third Successful Mission for SSLV ISRO Reschedules SSLV-D3 Satellite Launch to August 16 Explained: What ISRO's 'Baby Rocket' Launch Means For India's Future In Space Parents Gave Names Of Interns, Doctors To CBI In Kolkata Horror: Sources How Extreme Weather Is Leading To Rise In Child Marriages In Pakistan 3 Days After Big Order On Deposits With SBI And PNB, Karnataka Hits Pause "Far From Over" But Joe Biden Has High Hopes For Gaza Ceasefire Indian Student In UK Develops Revolutionary Carbon-Extracting Biomaterial Video: Woman Tries To Jump Off Mumbai's Atal Setu, Saved By Driver, Cops Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.