#Moon #formed #Japan #clues
For four days, the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, which landed on the Moon last month, used its multi-band spectral camera to study rock composition, and worked on examining lunar rocks, said project manager of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Shinichiro Sakai.
This lunar mission is Japan’s first. The probe made a historic precision landing on January 20, although it landed upside down; its solar panels were initially unable to see the sun and were turned off after brief communication with Earth. But on the eighth day, the probe began operating, allowing it to successfully reestablish communication with the JAXA command center on Earth.
A black-and-white photo transmitted shortly after SLIM was reactivated showed the lunar surface bumpy, with six rocks. The craft ultimately obtained data on ten rocks in total, all of which were given dog breed names, such as “Akitanu,” “Beagle” and “Shibainu.”
“We hope that analyzing the rocks will lead us to the origin of the Moon,” Sakai said. By comparing the mineral composition of lunar rocks to that of terrestrial rocks, one could discover whether the rocks have common elements. According to the “giant impact” hypothesis, the Moon was formed as a result of the Earth colliding with another planet and the rotation of a smaller mass from these two planets.
The JAXA team expected SLIM to study and analyze only one rock. Obtaining data on ten rocks was therefore a cause for celebration, which encouraged the team to continue studying the origins of the moon.
SLIM is currently in “hibernation” for another lunar night which will last until the end of February. It is not yet known whether the probe and its spectroscope will survive the very cold nighttime temperatures and whether they will be able to “wake up” when sunlight returns.
The probe landed about 55 meters from its target, near the Shioli crater, a region covered in volcanic rocks. This is the most precise landing compared to previous lunar missions which generally targeted flat areas at least ten kilometers wide.
If the lander had not encountered a last-minute failure in one of the two main engines, which resulted in a more difficult landing than expected, SLIM’s landing would have been achieved a few meters from the target, a estimated JAXA.
SLIM carried two autonomous probes that were released just before landing, recording the landing, environment, and other lunar data. The two small probes had completed their mission recording SLIM’s initial work and have since stopped operating.
Thanks to this moon landing, Japan became the fifth country to reach the Moon, after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.
