As millions of Indian women gazed at the moon in celebration of Karva Chauth, they were joined by an unlikely fellow spectator - the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, whose instruments recently captured the lunar surface from 100km above.

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See the first illuminated image of the lunar surface acquired by #Chandrayaan2's IIRS payload. IIRS is designed to measure reflected sunlight from the lunar surface in narrow and contiguous spectral channels.

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Using the Imaging Infrared Spectrometer (IIRS) onboard the orbiter, ISRO obtained images of the lunar farside in the northern hemisphere. The image also shows the Sommmerfield crater floor, the sunlit inner rim of crater Kirkwood, Stebbins crater floor, fresh crater Ejecta in Sommerfield crater floor and Stebbins crater central peak.

According to ISRO, the IIRS equipment is “designed to measure reflected sunlight from the lunar surface in narrow and contiguous spectral channels.” These channels are represented in the form of black and white bands, which can be analysed to obtain data on the lunar surface and its composition.

© Twitter/ISRO

“The major objective of IIRS is to understand the origin and evolution of the Moon in a geologic context by mapping the lunar surface mineral and volatile composition using signatures in the reflected solar spectrum,” ISRO said in a statement.