Chandrayaan-2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer (CLASS) spectrometer has mapped a large amount of sodium on the Moon for the first time, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement on Friday. The moon orbiter’s CLASS spectrometer provides clean signatures of the sodium line thanks to its high sensitivity and performance, while a study finds that a part of the signal could be arising from a thin veneer of sodium atoms weakly bound to the lunar grains, according to the space agency.
The X-ray spectrometer ‘CLASS’ on the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter has mapped an abundance of sodium on the moon for the first time, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation. Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (C1XS) detected sodium from its characteristic line in X-rays which opened up the possibility of mapping the amount of sodium on the moon, ISRO said.
