Data from India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission has provided mineralogical evidence supporting the presence of an ancient impact basin on the Moon that is no longer visible in topographic or gravity data, according to a study published in The Planetary Science Journal, dated August 2026.
Researchers from the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, studied the Mare Australe region using data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) aboard Chandrayaan-1. The study found a widespread, circular distribution of orthopyroxene around Mare Australe, supporting the presence of the previously suggested Australe Basin.