Chinese Rover Finds Translucent Glass Globules on the Moon - By Nancy_A
Scientists say China’s Yutu-2 rover, part of the Chang’E-4 mission, has found several small glass globules on the Moon’s far side. While tiny glass beads have been found previously in lunar samples brought back by the Apollo astronauts, the ones found by Yutu-2 are much bigger and translucent.
, Xiao said taking into account the location where the glass was found – in the South Pole Atkien basin at the lunar farside – and the local context of what is known about that region, they believe the beads are like most likely the result of large impacts to the Moon. “Transparent and translucent glasses on the Moon are less than 1 mm in diameters, and larger ones are dark and opaque,” the team wrote in their paper. “Hitherto discovered macro-sized glass globules on the Moon are opaque impact glass.”
Both volcanic and impact glasses on the Moon are formed by cooling of regolith that has experienced extreme heat. Glass spherules can record important information about the mantle composition and the history of both lunar volcanism and impact cratering.
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