India's lost lunar lander has been found on the Moon, after an unexplained failure meant it crashed into the surface.

The Indian space agency is now desperately trying to make contact with the spacecraft, more than a day after it lost touch with the space station.

The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency cited Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K Sivan as saying cameras from the moon mission's orbiter had located the lander.

"It must have been a hard landing," the PTI quoted Mr Sivan as saying.

The space agency said it lost touch with the Vikram lunar lander on Saturday as it made its final approach to the moon's south pole to deploy a rover to search for signs of water.

Best Nasa pictures of the month - August 2019 Show all 10 1 /10 Best Nasa pictures of the month - August 2019 Best Nasa pictures of the month - August 2019 "When stars like the Sun grow advanced in age, they expand and glow red. These so-called red giants then begin to lose their outer layers of material into space. More than half of such a star's mass can be shed in this manner, forming a shell of surrounding gas. At the same time, the star's core shrinks and grows hotter, emitting ultraviolet light that causes the expelled gases to glow. This type of object is called, somewhat confusingly, a planetary nebula, though it has nothing to do with planets. The name derives from the rounded, planet-like appearance of these objects in early telescopes" - European Space Agency Nasa Best Nasa pictures of the month - August 2019 Two galaxies are seen interacting with one another. This pair of galaxies is known as UGC2369 and they are being drawn together by mutual gravitational attraction. Our own Milky Way galaxy is next expected to interact with another galaxy, the Andromeda, in four billion years. The two galaxies will eventually merge together to form a galaxy that scientists are already calling the Milkomeda Nasa Best Nasa pictures of the month - August 2019 Mount Shasta in California as seen from 260 miles above earth onboard the International Space Station Nasa Best Nasa pictures of the month - August 2019 The galaxy NGC 5866 is seen at a side angle. We're used to seeing galaxies face-on but NGC 5866 is at such an angle to earth that we can only see it edge-on Nasa Best Nasa pictures of the month - August 2019 The most recent portrait of Jupiter taken by the Hubble Telescope shows a more intense colour palette swirling in Jupiter's atmosphere than in recent years. The different colours of the bands help scientists to understand what is happening in Jupiter's atmosphere Nasa Best Nasa pictures of the month - August 2019 This artist's illustration depicts the exoplanet LHS 3844b, which is 1.3 times the mass of Earth and 49 lightyears away. The illustration is based on research by Nasa into this recently discovered planet Nasa Best Nasa pictures of the month - August 2019 A Soyuz spacecraft carrying carg and supplies comes in to dock in the International Space Station Best Nasa pictures of the month - August 2019 A planetary nebula (radiation emitted by a dying star) is seen in the Gemini constellation by the Hubble Telescope Nasa Best Nasa pictures of the month - August 2019 North coast of Africa by Libya and Tunisia as seen from 260 miles above earth onboard the International Space Station Nasa Best Nasa pictures of the month - August 2019 This image from Nasa's Solar Dynamic Observatory shows our Sun in a different light. In colour are active regions of the atmosphere of the Sun e.g. solar flares and coronal mass ejections Nasa

A successful landing would have made India just the fourth country to land a vessel on the lunar surface, and only the third to operate a robotic rover there.

The space agency said on Saturday that the lander's descent was normal until 2km (1.2 miles) from the lunar surface.

The roughly 140 million dollar mission, known as Chandrayaan-2, was intended to study permanently shadowed moon craters that are thought to contain water deposits that were confirmed by the Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008.

The latest mission lifted off on July 22 from the Satish Dhawan space centre in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

After its launch, Chandrayaan-2 spent several weeks making its way towards the moon, ultimately entering lunar orbit on August 20.

The Vikram lander separated from the mission's orbiter on September 2 and began a series of braking manoeuvres to lower its orbit and ready itself for landing.

Only three nations - the United States, the former Soviet Union and China - have landed a spacecraft on the moon.