India's Chandrayaan-3 hop reveals lunar subsurface clues near south pole
India's Chandrayaan-3 just pulled off a cool move on the Moon, literally.
Near the end of its mission, ISRO used leftover fuel to make the Vikram lander hop about one-half meter and shift to a new spot near the south pole.
What started as a simple engineering test ended up giving scientists fresh clues about what lies beneath the lunar surface.
Vikram uncovers 3cm fresher soil
When Vikram landed again, it got to check out a different patch of lunar soil at Shiv Shakti Point.
Turns out, the top layer is soft and kind of fluffy, but dig just a bit deeper and things get much denser with different material.
The hop even blew away 3cm of surface dust, exposing fresher material underneath.
These findings could really help future missions (like NASA's Artemis program) figure out how to safely land, drill, or even set up camp on the Moon's south pole.