Chandrayaan 2 Orbiter catches solar flare in the act, gears up to watch the Moon's surface react

The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO's) Chandrayaan 2 orbiter has got its first taste of a solar flare — an important requirement for the spacecraft to study what the Moon's surface is made up of. Essentially, high energy radiation from the Sun helps "illuminate" the lunar surface, allowing the orbiter's instruments to gather additional data on the composition of the Moon's surface elements. ISRO has shared data that the orbiter's Solar X-ray Monitor collected on the flare.