Bengaluru / ISRO shares close-up pics of lunar surface captured by Chandrayaan-2

Orbiter High Resolution Camera (OHRC) onboard Indian Space Research Organisation's (Isro) Chandrayaan-2 has sent some images of the Moon to the Earth. The OHRC provides very high spatial resolution images of the Moon.

The OHRC instrument provides the sharpest images from a lunar orbiter platform.

The high resolution camera is an important tool for lunar topographic studies of select regions.

The high resolution images clicked by the OHRC was acquired on September 5 from a 100-km altitude. The image covered a part of Boguslawsky E Crater. The crater has a diameter of 14 km and a depth of 3 km. Boguslawsky E Crater lies in the southern polar area of the Moon.

Isro lost contact with the Vikram lander when it attempted landing on the Moon on September 7. Contact was lost in the final stages of the landing attempt. Isro has been unable to re-establish contact with Vikram, which carried the six-wheeled lunar rover Pragyaan, since then.

The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is safe in its orbit around the Moon and has begun performing experiments. On Thursday, Isro said the orbiter had managed to detect charged particles near the Moon.

These particles are a result of 'solar wind' (a stream of electron and protons) interacting with the Earth's magnetic field, which extends behind our planet. When the Moon (and thus, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter) is behind the Earth, these charged particles interact with its surface, offering a chance to perform experiments.

Isro hopes to use the Chadrayaan-2 orbiter to detect the presence of several minerals on the Moon when these charged particles hit the lunar surface.

The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter will continue its mission for seven years. One of the most crucial missions it will perform will be estimating the quantity of iced water in the Moon's south polar region.