Chang’e-5 mission: What are the samples brought from China’s moon telling

At the end of last year, China’s robotic Chang’e-5 mission was successful in bringing rock samples from the Moon. After 42 years from the surface of the Moon, no samples could be brought to Earth. Analysis of these samples has shown that these stones are made of basalt material whose lava is only two billion years old. This means that they are composed of very young lava. This is very unique and useful information because the first samples brought to Earth by American moon travelers during the Apollo missions were about three billion years old.

The results of this study have been published in the journal Science. This campaign of China was sent to the Oceanus Procellarum location of the Earth’s side of the Moon. Its purpose was to find new things in the information of samples brought from earlier Soviet probes, which were brought in 1976. The study worked with international researchers led by Xiaochao Chi and colleagues.

The most important thing in this analysis is the age data of these return samples which is attracting scientists from all over the world. This suggests that the volcanic activities on the Moon lasted much longer than expected. Whereas till now it is believed that the moon must have cooled down somewhere earlier. Now scientists will try to find out from this new information that due to which source of heat, the lava could maintain its nature for so long.

It was not found in this study that this condition on the Moon was caused by radioactive fission, because the Chang’e-5 samples did not contain any chemicals with this effect. Dr. Catherine Joy of the University of Manchester, UK, who co-authored the study, told the BBC that several other options were also discussed in this paper, one of them being that the Moon may be due to its orbital interaction with the Earth. could remain active for a long time. Apart from this, the tight heat due to the Moon wobbles back and forth in its orbit can also be the reason for this.

One of the major results of this study is that it has been able to investigate the technique of crater movement to find out the age of the surface of the planets. Scientists believe that more craters on the surface mean that the terrain is older and the presence of fewer craters suggests that the co has formed or developed only recently. But now in the case of Moon, there is a need to bring more accuracy in this technique.

Samples from Chang’e-5 point to a time between crater formation activity on the Moon. Another co-author of the study, Professor Brad Jolliff of the University of Washington in St. Louis, US, is hoping that China will now send the next sampling mission to the back of the Moon, called the South Pole Aitken Basin, which is about 4 billion years old. was made earlier. This will allow us to know the time of manufacture of this gram flour. And many questions related to this of scientists will be answered.

In recent years, China’s activity in space has increased very rapidly. China is the only country in the world that has done the work of bringing samples of the Moon to Earth by a robotic campaign. Apart from this, he has first successfully sent orbiter, rover, and lander to Mars by a single mission. Recently its own International Station has been established in space and it is being prepared for experiments.