An instrument aboard India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission has confirmed what scientists had long predicted — an increase in the density of molecules in the Moon’s exosphere, or its extremely thin atmosphere, during a major solar event called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) last year.

The Moon’s exosphere, found close to its surface, is made up of molecules released through processes such as solar radiation, solar wind, and meteorite impacts. During a CME — when the Sun ejects a burst of plasma from its outer layer — more molecules are knocked off the lunar surface, raising the density of the exosphere. Unlike Earth, the Moon lacks a magnetic field to shield it from these solar blasts, making it especially vulnerable.

This is what Chandrayaan -2’s payload, the Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition E

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