Xin reported in early April 2024 that two different structures of the titanium compound Ti2O became the seventh and eighth minerals to be discovered by humankind on the moon The minerals, collected by the Chang’e 5 mission, back up a theory of micrometeorites colliding with the moon to form its lunar landscape.
The minerals were probably formed as a result of intense vaporisation and
deposition triggered by the constant, powerful bombardment of micrometeorites
from space, the team says in Nature Astronomy. Photo: Chinese National Space
Agency Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center.
Scientists could be a step closer to solving the mystery of how the surface of the moon got its weathered and cratered appearance, after the discovery of unique minerals in lunar soil samples collected by the Chang’e 5 mission.
Titanium compounds, including Ti2O, which have never been seen in natural samples on Earth, were found on the surface of a tiny glass bead brought back by China’s Chang’e 5 spacecraft in 2020, according to researchers from the Institute of Geochemistry in Guiyang and their colleagues in Guangzhou and Macau.
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