chinese scientists have discovered a new lunar mineral through the investigation of the samples brought back from the moon for the Chang’e-5 mission.
This is the first new mineral discovered on the Moon by China and the sixth by mankind. The new find makes China the third country in the world to have discovered a new mineral on the Moon, said Dong Baotong, deputy director of the CAEA, after the United States and Russia.
The new mineral, which has been named Changesite-(Y), is a kind of transparent and colorless columnar crystal. It was discovered from an analysis of lunar basalt particles by a research team from the Peking Uranium Geology Research Institute, a subsidiary of the China National Nuclear Corporation.
Changesite-(Y) has already been officially approved as a new mineral by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association, reports Xinhua.