India’s Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter on Saturday made the first-ever observation of the effects of the Sun’s Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) on the Moon, with one of its scientific instruments, Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2), onboard.

Observations from CHACE-2 showed an increase in the total pressure of the dayside lunar exosphere (fragile atmosphere) when the CME impacted the Moon. The total number density (number of neutral atoms or molecules present in an environment per unit volume) derived from these observations showed an increase by more than an order of magnitude. This increase is consistent with earlier theoretical models, which predicted such an effect, but CHACE-2 onboard Chandrayaan-2 has observed such an effect for the first time, an official statement said

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