Chinese Robot Finds Translucent Glass Beads on Moon

Antarctica — Scientists say China’s Yutu-2 rover has found tiny glass beads on the far side of the moon. While the small glass beads were previously carried by the Apollo astronauts, the one discovered by Yutu-2 is said to be much larger and translucent.

The discovery was revealed by Dr Zhiyong Xiao, one of the main scientific team members of the Chang’E-4 mission. The beads were found by viewing a panoramic image taken by the rover robot. Because Yutu-2 does not have the sampling capability of its older sibling, the Chang-E-5 mission, there is no compositional data on the glass beads, but only observational evidence.

In the paper published in //Science Bulletin//, Xiao said, taking into account the location where the glass was found, in the Atkien basin of the South Pole on the far side of the moon, and the local context of what is known about the region, they believe the beads are likely large from the result of a large collision to the moon. This paper details the discovery of several spherical glass and translucent dumbbells of varying sizes, the largest of which is 4 centimeters. It is transparent to translucent with some showing a light brownish tint.

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“Transparent and translucent glass on the moon is less than 1 mm in diameter, and larger ones are dark and opaque,” the team wrote in their paper.

“To date, macro-sized glass globules found on the moon (up to 4 cm in diameter) are impact opaque glass.”

In the Apollo samples, tiny glass beads were found on several missions, but they were very small, less than 1 millimeter. Studies of the beads show they come from a volcano, and have different colors depending on their chemical makeup.

Both volcanic glass and impact glass on the moon are formed from the cooling of regolith that has been subjected to extreme heat. The glass ball can record important information about the composition of the mantle and the history of lunar volcanism and impact craters.

In the case of Apollo 17’s orange glass, analysis on Earth revealed the volcanic glass was formed when molten lava from the moon’s interior erupted, some 3 to 4 billion years ago. It is regurgitated over an airless surface and into a vacuum. When lava is exposed to a vacuum, it separates into small fragments and solidifies, forming tiny beads of volcanic glass in orange and black colors. Subsequent analysis revealed the measured moisture content in the beads.

But the glass invented by Yutu-2 is different. The researchers concluded, from their unique morphology and local context, that they most likely formed from a collision. It is referred to as an anorthocytic impact melt that was extinguished and generated during a crater formation event. “Not from a volcano or sent from another planetary body,” the researchers said.

Xiao and his team predict that glass grains will be abundant throughout the lunar plateau. That provides sampling targets for other future missions that could reveal the history of early collisions on the moon.

Chang’e-4 launched on December 8, 2018 and landed Yutu-2 in the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on January 3, 2019. So far, Yutu-2 has covered a distance of more than 1,000 meters.

Source: Phys.org

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