2024-07-24 19:35:13
2020 Chang’e-5 Recovered Soil Contains Water Molecules ‘Unknown Lunar Mineral (ULM-1)’
Advances in microanalysis and remote sensing technologies challenge the concept of a ‘dry moon’
Chinese scientists have made significant progress in understanding the moon by discovering traces of water in soil they brought back from the moon, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on the 23rd.
Chinese scientists discovered “watery minerals” with “molecular water” based on soil samples returned by Chang’e-5 after completing its lunar exploration on December 17, 2020.
Chang’e 5 is the first space probe to bring back lunar soil in 40 years since the U.S.’s Apollo and the Soviet Union’s Luna probe.
On June 25th of this year, the Chang’e 6 probe, the first space probe to collect samples from the far side of the moon, returned to Earth after a 53-day mission and is analyzing its components.
According to NASA, samples brought back by American Apollo astronauts decades ago showed no traces of water, leading scientists to conclude that lunar soil must be completely dry.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced on the 23rd that scientists discovered minerals rich in molecular numbers based on lunar soil samples brought back by the Chang’e 5 probe.
The results of this study, jointly conducted by the Beijing National Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other research institutions in China, were published in the journal ‘Nature Astronomy’ on July 16 after peer review.
Using samples provided by the China National Space Administration, the research team isolated more than 1,000 mineral “clastic rocks.” Among them, the team said, there was a plate-shaped transparent crystal called “Unknown Lunar Mineral (ULM-1)” that contained water molecules.
The research team ruled out the possibility that the minerals, including water components, were contaminated by terrestrial sources or rocket exhaust.
A geochemist said he hopes further research will uncover more evidence.
“If water-containing minerals were present in lunar samples, we should find more than one piece,” he said, who said he was not involved in the study.
The search for water on the moon has been ongoing since the Apollo missions.
The concept of a ‘dry moon’ has been challenged in recent years thanks to technological advances such as microscopic techniques and remote sensing, he said.
For example, in 2009, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft detected traces of hydrated minerals in the form of oxygen and hydrogen molecules on sunlit regions of the Moon.
In 2020, NASA announced that it had discovered water on the sunlit surface of the Moon, based on data from the Airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.
The data comes from Clavius Crater in the southern hemisphere of the Moon, one of the largest craters visible from Earth.
However, scientists have been unable to determine the origin or chemical form of hydrogen on the moon due to a lack of lunar soil samples collected from high latitudes and polar regions, the SCMP reported.
[서울=뉴시스]
-
- great
- 0dog
-
- I’m so sad
- 0dog
-
- I’m angry
- 0dog
-
- I recommend it
- dog
Hot news right now
2024-07-24 19:35:13