Historic First: ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 Achieves What No Space Agency Ever Could – Captures Sun’s Fury Hitting Moon | India News
India has rewritten the rules of space science. In a ground-breaking scientific breakthrough that stunned the global space community, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced that the lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-2 has made the first observation of the effects of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) from the Sun on the exosphere of the Moon; This is a feat no other space agency in the world has achieved.
What are Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs)?
Coronal Mass Ejections are large bursts of solar wind and magnetic fields released from the Sun’s corona. They can launch billions of tons of charged particles into space.
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ISRO’s CHACE-2
The groundbreaking observation was made using the Chandra Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2) instrument on India’s orbiter, proving once again that ISRO is working at the cutting edge of space exploration.
During a rare solar event on May 10, 2024, a series of CMEs hit the Moon, leading to a dramatic increase in the total pressure of the dayside Lunar exosphere, the extremely thin atmosphere surrounding the Moon. ISRO scientists reported that the number density of neutral atoms and molecules in the exosphere has increased by more than one fold; this confirmed theoretical predictions that had never been confirmed before through direct observation until India did so.
India Reveals the Hidden Secrets of the Moon
The Moon’s exosphere, classified as the surface boundary exosphere, is highly sensitive to solar activity due to the absence of a global magnetic field. The CME event temporarily altered the Moon’s atmospheric conditions, increasing the release of atoms from the lunar surface, and Chandrayaan-2 captured all of this in unprecedented detail.
ISRO said the findings not only deepen the scientific understanding of space weather on the Moon but also have game-changing implications for future Moon missions and the design of human habitats on the Moon. As humanity prepares to colonize the Moon, India is leading the way with critical data that will shape the future of lunar bases.
The landmark study titled “Impact of Coronal Mass Ejection on Lunar Exosphere Observed by CHACE-2 onboard the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter” was published in the prestigious Geophysical Research Letters on August 16, 2025, strengthening India’s position as a global space superpower.
What Makes This Discovery Revolutionary?
ISRO explained that the Moon has a very thin atmosphere called exosphere, where gas atoms and molecules coexist but hardly collide with each other. Because this exosphere begins directly at the Moon’s surface, it is classified as a surface boundary exosphere.
ISRO said, “Earth’s Moon has a very thin atmosphere that falls under the ‘exosphere’ category, implying that gas atoms and molecules in the lunar environment rarely interact despite coexistence. The boundary of the exosphere is the Moon’s surface and hence the Moon’s exosphere falls under the ‘surface boundary exosphere’ category.” he explained.
The exosphere on the Moon is produced by a series of processes that include the interaction of solar radiation, the solar wind (Hydrogen, Helium ions and small amounts of heavier ions emitted from the Sun), and the impact of meteorites with the Lunar surface. These processes release atoms and molecules from the Moon’s surface, which become part of the exosphere.
“In general, the Moon’s exosphere is extremely sensitive to even small variations in the factors responsible for its creation, and one such factor is the emission of the Sun’s coronal mass, known as CME (short form of Coronal Mass Ejection). CMEs are events in which the Sun ejects significant amounts of its building material, consisting mostly of Helium and Hydrogen ions. These effects are important on the Moon because the Moon is an airless body and consists of very little air.” it lacks. “Any global magnetic field whose presence shields (even partially) solar effects on its surface,” ISRO said.
India Seizes Rare Cosmic Opportunity
When the universe presented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, India was ready. The chance to directly observe the effects of a CME impacting the Moon arose with a rare event on May 10, 2024, when a series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were ejected by the Sun. This increased amount of solar coronal mass hitting the Moon accelerated the process of tearing atoms away from the lunar surface, thus releasing them into the lunar exosphere; this manifested as an increase in the total pressure in the solar lunar exosphere.
“This observation will provide groundbreaking scientific insight into the Moon’s exosphere and the effects of space weather on the Moon. In addition to challenging our scientific understanding of the Moon and the moon’s space weather (the impact of the Sun’s emissions on the Moon), this observation also illustrates the challenges of building scientific bases on the Moon. Lunar base architects need to account for such extreme events that will temporarily alter the Lunar environment before the impacts.” will subside,” ISRO concluded.
