An instrument—a Langmuir probe—on the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander has revealed that the density of plasma near the lunar surface is rather thin.
Key facts
- The Langmuir probe is named after its inventor, the American physicist Irving Langmuir. It is an instrument that measures properties of plasmas.
- Plasma is a fourth state of matter (beyond the conventional solids, liquids and gases), when it is super-hot. It is a soup of positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons.)
- The Langmuir probe on the Vikram lander, which ISRO has christened ‘Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive Ionosphere and Atmosphere—Langmuir Probe (RAMBHA-LP) has checked out the plasma in the region near the moon’s surface and has assessed that the plasma near the lunar surface is relatively sparse.
- This means that there are not many electrons in this region of space, ISRO said in a tweet.
- The thinness of lunar plasma is important because it affects the way radio waves propagate through space.
- Radio waves are affected by the presence of plasma—the denser the plasma, the more the radio waves are scattered.
- The sparseness of lunar plasma means that radio waves can propagate through space with less attenuation, which is important for communication between lunar missions.
About Plasma
- Plasma, the fourth state of matter (beyond the conventional solids, liquids and gases), is an ionized gas consisting of approximately equal numbers of positively and negatively charged particles.
- There are two general forms of plasma: high-temperature plasmas that are found in stars and in fusion reactors; and low-temperature versions (ranging from 100 to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit) used in fluorescent lighting, electrical propulsion and semiconductor manufacturing.
