Moon Mapping Mission Glimpses First X-ray

摘要

The C1XS x-ray camera - jointly developed by the UK's STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) - has successfully detected its first x-ray signature from the Moon, the first step in a mission to reveal the origin and evolution of our Moon by mapping its surface composition. In orbit around the Moon on the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, C1XS detected the x-ray signal from a region near the Apollo landing sites on 12 December 2008. The solar flare that caused the x-ray fluorescence was exceedingly weak, approximately 20 times smaller than the minimum C1XS was designed to detect.