China’s scientists said on Friday that they had discovered a new mineral on the moon, making it the third nation to do so.
The vice chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority, Dong Baotong, revealed the new mineral’s designation as Changesite- (Y). It was discovered in rock and dust samples that China’s Chang’e-5 expedition brought back from the moon.
The mission, which was launched in 2020, was the first to bring back a lunar sample for China. The other two countries to accomplish so to date are the United States and Russia. This is the sixth brand-new mineral that people have found on the moon.
Wang Xuejun, a party official with China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), informed that a research team from the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology carefully separated a single crystalline particle of the material from more than 140,000 lunar particles using hi-tech processes, including X-ray diffraction.
According to Wang, the particle had a diameter of roughly 10 microns, or one-tenth of a human hair. Lunar basalts include the phosphate mineral known as changesite-(Y). It has been recognised as a new mineral by the International Mineralogical Association’s Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature, and Classification.
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