China has shared a look at the first monthly samples to be returned to Earth in more than 45 years.
The monthly rule was collected by the Chang’e 5 national mission, which returned in December with 3.8 kilograms of soil and rocks from our natural satellite.
The images show small samples such as dust particles up to larger pieces, along with samples in a crystal container that will be exhibited at the National Museum of China.
The container is designed as a ritual Chinese wine vessel or “zun” and holds the monthly dust in a sanctified sphere that represents both the moon and the Chang’5 re-entry capsule.
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China shares glimpse of first monthly samples to be returned to Earth in more than 45 years
China’s lunar mission was the first to return with samples from the former Soviet Union’s Lunar 24 robotic mission in 1976 and is now the 21st mission to land on the lunar surface.
Chang’e-5 took off from the top of the Long March-5 rocket in November from the Wenchang launch site in Hainan Province for what represents a major breakthrough in the country’s space program.
The probe targeted a 4,265-meter-high volcanic complex called Mons Rumker near the moon, a region known as the Oceanus Procellarum, which is Latin for Ocean of Storms.
The area is “very unusual and nowhere near where we landed before,” said James Head, a professor of geological science at Brown University after the November launch.
The monthly rule was collected by the Chang’e 5 National Mission, which returned in December with 3.8 kilograms of soil and rocks from our natural satellite.
“It raises really important questions, because these samples will actually tell us how young the volcanic activity was on the moon, which indicates how recently it has been geologically active, a critical question in the evolution of the planets,” he added. . .
The images show samples as small as dust particles to larger pieces, along with samples inside a crystal container.
The probe returned on December 17, with lunar rocks and soil safely arranged inside, and China offered the first official look at cosmic wonders.
The age of rocks and soil should help scientists fill a gap in knowledge about the history of the moon between about 1 billion and three billion years ago, Brad Jolliff, director of the McDonnell Center for Space Sciences at Washington University in Washington USA of St. Louis, he said in an email.
They could also provide clues as to the availability of economically useful resources on the moon, such as concentrated hydrogen and oxygen, Jolliff said.
“These samples will be a treasure!” Jolliff said when the probe returned in December.
“My hat is for our Chinese colleagues because it has accomplished a very difficult mission; the science that will result from the analysis of the returned samples will be a legacy that will last for many, many years and hopefully involve the international community of scientists.
The age of rocks and soil should help scientists fill a gap in knowledge about the history of the moon between about a billion and three billion years ago.
The probe targeted a 4,265-meter-high volcanic complex called Mons Rumker near the moon, a region known as the Oceanus Procellarum, which is Latin for Ocean of Storms.
The image shared by China shows samples of fine, granular material, along with pieces of basalt glasses that formed on the surface through lunar volcanism, as described in the image.
Some of the soil collected in 2020 will be exhibited at the National Museum of China in Beijing, CGTN said in a statement.
The elaborate container with a height of 38.44 centimeters is a sign of the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, which is 384,400 kilometers.
It also has a width of 22.89 centimeters, symbolizing the duration of the Chang’e-5 mission from launch to landing, 22.89 days.
“Eighty percent of the samples will be used for scientific research,” Pei Zhaoyu, deputy chief designer of China’s Monthly Exploration Program, Phase 3 of the CNSA, told a news conference on January 18th. storage.