It's been more than three years since the Chang'e 5 mission, the main part of which took place in December 2020. But collecting material is one thing, analyzing it is a separate matter. It was carried out by scientists associated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. After they talked in the past about the possible discovery of a previously unknown metal on the surface of our natural satellite, now is the time for official confirmation of these reports.
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The authors write about the background of the analyzes conducted in: Matter and radiation at the ends. The choice of name for the mineral in question should come as no surprise, after all, the researchers chose… Change site (changesyt?), which is a reference to the name of the mission in which an unmanned space probe plays the main role. The lander it was part of collected about 2 kilograms of lunar soil, which was eventually sent to Earth laboratories.
The project was unique for another reason: it meant collecting samples from the moon after a break of more than 40 years. There is no doubt that the efforts of Chinese engineers have proven to be worth the effort, as the Middle Kingdom has proven once again that its aspirations in space exploration are truly far-reaching. While the United States' greatest rival during the Cold War was the Soviet Union, China currently represents a counterweight.
A previously unknown lunar mineral has been identified by scientists analyzing samples collected as part of China's Chang'e 5 mission.
The authors of the research dedicated to the situation in Silver Globe focused on high-pressure minerals that form as a result of the impacts of asteroids or comets. There is no shortage of such events on the Moon, which are easy to see thanks to the numerous craters covering the surface of this body. On the other hand, several kilograms of lunar samples were collected in the past, but their analyzes did not show the presence of such minerals among them.
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And now a change has occurred, and the site of the change, according to scientists, was formed in the late stage of crystallization of the basalt found in the Chang'e-5 landing zone. We are talking about a transparent material made of crystals. In addition, the researchers identified two other lunar minerals already known from previous analyses. Although it may resemble ordinary quartz in composition, it has a completely different crystal structure, which results from its formation under high pressure and in the presence of high temperature. The samples collected come from the Aristarchus Crater near Oceanus Procellarum, where the probe landed.
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