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Chinese Chang'e-4 Rover Discovers 2 Glass Globules on Moon's Far Side


Sun 20 Feb 2022 | 12:41 PM
Rana Atef

The Chinese lunar rover Chang'e-4 has discovered two tiny glass globules on the far side of the moon during an exploratory mission, media agencies reported on Sunday.

A study published in Science Bulletin mentioned that the rover captured some images for two globules using its panoramic camera devices.

According to the study, the origin of those glass globules is not volcanic, but they could be related to the anorthositic impact.

Researchers also asserted that the discovered samples are so different from the glass structures of Apollo missions as they are larger and reflect several colors.

Last month, China’s lunar probe Chang'e-5 detected the earliest evidence of water’s existence on the moon’s surface.

The latest photos captured by the probe showed a moon rock surrounded by lunar soil that contained water.

A joint team of scientists from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) worked on analyzing the photos by using the probe’s developed lunar mineralogical spectrometer (LMS).

This technology is based on using infrared light to analyze the mineralogical components of the moon’s surface.

Chang'e-5 lander has found the first-ever on-site evidence of water on the Moon’s surface. Photos shot by the probe show the Moon rock and surrounding lunar soil that the water was detected in.

Regarding the analysis’ results, they show that water content in the soil, and the rock was less than 120 ppm in the soil, and about 180ppm in the rock.

Experts believe that the soil may have more water than the rock but it could be dried by the solar winds, in addition, the source of these waters are still unidentified.