CHANG’E-5 LUNAR MISSION

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Context

On December 16, 2020, China’s Chang’e-5 lunar mission delivered to Earth nearly 2 kg of rocky fragments and dust from the Moon.
The team has modelled the potential contributions from specific craters: Aristarchus, Kepler, Copernicus, Harding, and Harpalus.
Now, scientists presented the early-stage findings that use geological mapping to link ‘exotic’ fragments in the collected samples to features near the landing site.

About Chang'e 5

It is the fifth lunar exploration mission of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, and China's first lunar sample-return mission.
The mission comprised of a lunar orbiter, a lander and an ascent probe that lifted the lunar samples back into orbit and returned them back to Earth.
The Chang'e 5 landing site is in the Northern Oceanus Procellarum near a huge volcanic complex, Mons Rümker, located in the northwest lunar near side.
The Chang'e 5 landing site, named Statio Tianchuan, is within the Procellarum KREEP Terrain, with elevated heat-producing elements, thin crust, and prolonged volcanism.
This area is characterized by some of the youngest mare basalts on the Moon (~1.21 billion years old), with elevated titanium, thorium, and olivine abundances, which have never been sampled by Apollo or Luna mission.
Chang'e-5 will help scientists understand what was happening late in the moon's history, as well as how Earth and the solar system evolved.

The Findings

90% of the materials collected by Chang’e-5 likely derive from the landing site and its immediate surroundings, which are of a type termed ‘mare basalts’.
These volcanic rocks are visible to us as the darker grey areas that spilled over much of the nearside of the Moon as ancient eruptions of lava.
Yet 10% percent of the fragments have distinctly different, ‘exotic’ chemical compositions.
Scientists have traced these glassy droplets to extinct volcanic vents known as ‘Rima Mairan’ and ‘Rima Sharp’.

Significance

The distinct 10% fragments may preserve records of other parts of the lunar surface as well as hints of the types of space rocks that have impacted the Moon’s surface.
These fragments could give insights into past episodes of energetic, fountain-like volcanic activity on the Moon.