New Delhi: India's Chandrayaan-3 rover has made a groundbreaking revelation, detecting the presence of oxygen and an array of minerals on the moon's surface, as announced by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday.

Following its successful landing on the moon's southern pole on August 23rd, the moon probe has been actively conducting scientific analyses.

The sophisticated Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) instrument, equipped onboard the Pragyan rover, played a pivotal role in this discovery. The instrument identified minerals including iron, titanium, manganese, silicon, chromium, calcium, aluminum, and sulfur on the lunar surface.

ISRO elaborated, "In-situ scientific experiments continue. The Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) instrument onboard the Rover unambiguously confirms the presence of Sulphur (S) in the lunar surface near the south pole, through first-ever in-situ measurements. Al, Ca, Fe, Cr, Ti, Mn, Si, and O are also detected, as expected. The search for Hydrogen (H) is underway." The ISRO shared this update on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Notably, the LIBS instrument was developed at the Laboratory for Electro Optics Systems/ISRO, located in the southern city of Bengaluru.

This significant discovery ushers in a new era of lunar exploration and enhances our understanding of the moon's composition, potentially providing insights into the evolution of celestial bodies.