Lunar soil collected by the Chinese probe amaze scientists

The Chinese probe “Chang’e 5” succeeded in delivering about two kilograms of lunar soil to Earth on December 16, 2020. This event made China the third country after the United States and the Soviet Union to receive samples from the moon.

At the same time, the probe “Chang’e-5” landed in places not explored by Soviet and American missions. Moreover, the samples collected by the Chinese probe contain fragments of the smallest lunar rock ever examined in the Earth laboratory.

The landing site of the Chinese probe was in the western part of the visible side of the moon, in the vicinity of storms. It is one of the youngest geological formations in Selene, and is “only” about two billion years old.

The material collected from the surface of the Earth’s satellite is crumbly soil, shattered into dust by the impacts of meteorites of different sizes over billions of years.

Recently, scientists from China Geological University in Wuhan announced the first results of a soil study. They gave a presentation at the European Conference on Planetary Sciences (Europlanet), which took place from 13 to 24 September 2021.

The researchers used the geological mapping method to determine the origin of the collected rock fragments.

90% of the collected soil, most likely, was formed in the landing area of ​​the lunar probe. These are the so-called sea basalts: igneous rocks that look like dark spots on the visible side of the Moon, formed during ancient volcanic eruptions, according to Vesti.

At the same time, 10% of the studied samples differ significantly from the rest in chemical composition. This unusual rock may contain information about other regions of the moon’s surface and about cosmic bodies that have collided with the moon over the past billion years.

Some of these “alien” specimens are droplets of a rapidly cooled vitreous substance. The researchers believe that these ‘glass beads’ formed in the Meiran and Sharp craters, which are located 230 kilometers southeast and 160 kilometers northeast of the probe’s landing site, respectively.

The relatively young age of the rock samples helped the researchers narrow the field of study: after all, the “culprit” in the movement of the rocks could be meteorite falls that occurred during the past two billion years. On the visible side of the Moon, there are not many craters from such impacts.

According to scientists, most of the “alien” soil samples at the landing site of the Chinese probe moved from the Garbal Crater. It lies east of the Storm Ocean across the Gulf of Dew.

Some lunar rock samples can travel up to 1,300 km before reaching the collection site.

Lead author Yuqi Qian of China Geological University said: “All the domestic and foreign materials among the samples collected by Chang’e-5 can be used to answer a number of other scientific questions. By addressing them, we will deepen our understanding of lunar history and can prepare for exploration The moon is more.