Geochemical composition of Chandrayaan-3 landing site closely resembles meteorite discovered in Antarctica

Published 3 July 2026 · science

Scientists at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), in a new study, have found that the geochemical composition of the Shiv Shakti Statio — the Chandrayaan-3

Scientists at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), in a new study, have found that the geochemical composition of the Shiv Shakti Statio — the Chandrayaan-3 landing site — closely resembles that of a meteorite discovered in Antarctica. The meteorite, ALHA 81005, was found in the Allan Hills region during the 1981-82 Antarctic expedition and holds a special place among lunar meteorites, as it was the first to be classified as being of lunar origin. According to the study, following the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on August 23, 2023, the Alpha Particle Average composition According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the average composition of Shiv Shakti Point is homogeneous, with observations revealing lower aluminium and higher iron and magnesium abundances compared with typical lunar highland regions.

In addition, the olivine-to-pyroxene ratio at Shiv Shakti Statio is higher than that of the moon’s typical Feldspathic Highland Terrain (FHT). Scientists compared the Chandrayaan-3 data with 66 lunar meteorites collected on earth and found that ALHA 81005 was the closest geochemical match. “In particular, both the meteorite and the Chandrayaan-3 landing site occupy a rare compositional space between two major lunar rock groups — ferroan anorthosites (FAN) and Mg-suite rocks — further demonstrating their geochemical similarity. Additionally, both contain nearly similar amounts of aluminium oxide (Al₂O₃) and a combination of iron oxide (FeO) and magnesium oxide (MgO),” ISRO said.

However, ISRO clarified that these findings do not suggest that ALHA 81005 originated from Shiv Shakti Statio. Rather, they indicate that both represent a similar type of magnesium-rich lunar crust and regolith. Mixture of materials Further geochemical analysis argued that the soil at the Shiv Shakti Statio is a mixture of materials from different layers of the moon’s crust. The surface appears to contain not only material from the upper crust but also fragments of magnesium-rich rocks, likely derived from the moon’s deeper layers. Given the proximity of the Shiv Shakti Statio to the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin (~350 km), it is possible that materials excavated from deeper layers during the SPA basin-forming event were incorporated into the soils at the Chandrayaan-3 landing site.

“These findings are consistent with earlier APXS studies that supported the Lunar Magma Ocean (LMO) hypothesis and revealed the presence of primitive mantle-related materials at the landing site,” ISRO said. It added that this new study has opened new avenues for understanding the formation of the ancient lunar crust.