Chang'e-5's Moon Glass Spheres Revolutionize Understanding of Moon's Hidden Interior

Tiny green glass spheres collected by China's Chang'e-5 lunar mission are providing scientists with unprecedented insights into the Moon's hidden interior. The breakthrough is the result of a collaboration between Chinese and Australian researchers, it was announced Monday.

Unlike typical lunar glass spheres formed by shallow impacts, these new beads feature unusually high levels of magnesium, evidence that suggests a potential origin deeper within Earth's satellite, according to a press release from Australia's Curtin University .

" These high-magnesium glass spheres may have formed when an asteroid impacted rocks from the deep mantle inside the Moon, " explained Alexander Nemchin of Curtin University's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences .

" This is exciting, because we have never directly sampled the mantle before: these tiny glass spheres give us a glimpse into the hidden interior of the Moon ," added Nemchin, one of the authors of the joint study published in the journal Science Advances .

Co-author Tim Johnson, a colleague of Nemchin, highlighted how the chemical composition of these spheres differs significantly from previously studied lunar materials, suggesting that they may have surfaced during the formation of the Imbrium Basin, a massive impact crater that formed more than 3 billion years ago .

" Remote sensing has shown that the area surrounding the rim of the basin contains the type of minerals that match the chemistry of glass spheres, " Johnson said, adding that if these samples do indeed come from the mantle, it would confirm that giant impacts can bring otherwise inaccessible deep material to the surface , representing a significant breakthrough in understanding the geologic evolution of the Moon.

The study's lead author, Wang Xiaolei of Nanjing University in China, said the discovery could influence future lunar missions. " Unravelling the Moon's internal structure helps us compare it with Earth and other planets, and better plan robotic or manned exploration ," Wang said.

Image made with the support of Gemini