China News Agency, Guiyang, December 23 (Reporter Pu Wensi Yang Qian) The Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences disclosed on the 23rd that the scientific research team of the Institute recently obtained the Chang'e 5 moon through research on rock debris in the lunar soil of Chang'e 5. The composition information of foreign rock clastics on the young basalt unit of the No. 1, and found special lunar rocks and volcanic clastics, which provided evidence for revealing the diversity of lunar crust composition and magma activity. Known geological units, which can provide scientific support for planning future lunar sampling or remote sensing exploration missions.
This research result was recently published in the international journal of planetary science "Nature Astronomy".
The Chang'e-5 landing area is a mesotitanium basalt unit formed 2 billion years ago. The Chang'e-5 lunar soil provides a new time window for the study of material transformation and material composition on the moon's young geological units.
As the lunar surface has been impacted and reformed by small celestial bodies for a long time, the lunar surface materials have been continuously broken, plowed, migrated, and mixed, so that the lunar soil in the Chang'e-5 sampling area contains a certain amount of sputtering from other areas.
The results of theoretical calculation and remote sensing analysis estimate that the Chang'e-5 landing area contains more than 10% to 20% of other regional materials. However, the foreign debris in the Chang'e-5 lunar soil (materials sputtered from other areas of the moon to the Chang'e-5 sampling area) How much is the contribution?
Does it contain special lunar crust rock fragments?
What do these foreign debris tell us about the evolution of the moon's crust?
It is still not clear that the answers to these questions can provide restrictive information for understanding the plowing and migration process of lunar soil in young geological units of the lunar crust, the diversity of lunar crust rock composition, and the geological evolution of the lunar crust.
Dr. Zeng Xiaojia, Researcher Li Xiongyao, and Researcher Liu Jianzhong from the Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences analyzed more than 3,000 Chang'e-5 lunar soil particles and identified 7 igneous rock fragments different from the Chang'e-5 titanium basalt, including: Tibony porphyritic clastics, low-titanium basalt clastics, olivine pyroxenic clastics, magnesian anorthosite clastics, highly evolved clastics, forsterite-rich olivine clastics and volcanic glass clastics.
Based on the petrological, mineralogical and geochemical data of these cuttings, their genesis, similarities and differences with Apollo rocks, source, geological significance, etc. are analyzed and discussed.
The study found that the high-titanium glassy porphyry rock clastics may be clastics of lunar olivine basalts, which have different mineral composition and composition characteristics from the reported Apollo olivine basalts; found magnesian obliques not observed in Apollo samples. This type of rock is mainly reported in plagioclase highland breccia meteorites, which indicates that the distribution of magnesia anorthosite also exists on the front of the moon; in addition, the studied volcanic glass clasts are stronger than Apollo volcanic glass. Higher iron oxide content and lower magnesium index values indicate the presence of as yet unknown (more evolved) volcanic activity on the Moon.
The value of this research work mainly includes: for the first time, the information on the composition of foreign igneous rock clastics on the young basalt units of the moon 2 billion years ago was obtained; the discovery of special rock clastics of the lunar crust provides a basis for revealing the diversity of lunar crust composition and magma activity. Evidence; research indicates that there are still unrecognized geological units on the moon, which can provide scientific support for planning future lunar sampling or remote sensing exploration missions.
In addition to foreign igneous rock debris, the research team has recently discovered new lunar minerals, special lunar impact sputtering, and suspected asteroid remnants in the lunar soil of Chang'e-5. Analyzing and studying these materials will help In order to innovate the understanding of the geological evolution of the moon, it will also help to enrich the contribution of Chang'e-5 lunar soil to human understanding of the moon.
(use up)