On 27th August 2023, Chandrayaan 3 started sending its findings on the moon’s surface from its south pole. ISRO scientists said that the moon’s surface temperature from its southern pole recorded a temperature of 70 degrees Celsius. This temperature was not what ISRO scientists expected.
Scientists expected the temperature of the moon’s surface where Chandrayaan 3 landed to execute its experiments to be between 20 degrees to 30 degrees Celsius. B.H. Darukesha, ISRO scientists said, “We all believed that the temperature could be somewhere around 20 degrees centigrade to 30 degrees centigrade on the surface but it is 70 degrees centigrade. This is surprisingly higher than what we had expected.”
Since Earth hardly ever sees any variation in its surface temperature, this finding of Chandrayaan 3 was unexpected for scientists. Darukesha says, “When we go two to three centimeters inside the Earth, we hardly see two to three-degree centigrade variation whereas there (in Moon), it is about 50-degree centigrade variation. This is something interesting.”
Courtesy to ISRO’s Chandrayaan 3 the scientist fraternity could get the knowledge of the moon’s surface temperature in its south pole region. It ranges from 70 degrees to minus 10 degrees Celsius.
Vikram’s payload examined the lunar surface temperature at different depths on the moon’s south pole region. The chart presented by ISRO, it shows how the ground temperature stays around 50 degrees Celsius and increases to 60 degrees at 20 mm height from the moon’s surface.
Again below the moon’s surface at about minus 80 mm depth the temperature falls to minus 10 degrees Celsius. This temperature has been recorded during the time on the moon. Earlier S. Somnath, ISRO chairman, said that the south pole of the moon is less illuminated by the sun. He mentions the reason for landing Chandrayaan 3 in the moon’s south pole region between the 23rd- and 24th of August to experience a lunar day on the south pole region of the moon. This ensures a period of 14 days to complete all the experiments on the southern lunar surface within the region’s lunar day.
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