The Chinese moon rover “Yutu-2” encountered a meter-thick layer of sand and dust at its landing site on the back of the moon. The material is so valuable because it comes from inside the Earth’s satellite and can provide information about its geological origin. This is shown by the rover’s radar measurements, which the team led by astrophysicist Yan Su from the Chinese Academy of Sciences presented in the US journal “Science Advances”. It is the first great success of the moon robot. It was dropped by the Chinese lunar probe “Chang’E-4” on the back of the Earth’s satellite in January 2019. Since then, the lunar probe has been moving 370 meters to do scientific research and analyze samples.
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The twelve meter thick layer of sand is the preliminary highlight of the discoveries. The researchers are looking for material from inside the satellite, also known as the moon’s mantle. The robots can move on the surface without any problems, but the probe cannot reach deeper layers of rock because it cannot dig. The researchers therefore steer the robots in the vicinity of craters caused by asteroid impacts. They assume that the rock fragments penetrate the moon’s crust upon impact and have brought the coveted mantle rock to the surface. The rock is said to provide insight into how the interior of planets has developed. This is the only way that researchers can reconstruct the history of the Earth’s satellite.
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The twelve meter thick layer of dust is located near the south pole of the moon at the landing site of the probe in the Von Kármán crater. The material resembles fine sand rather than dust. The US “Apollo” and Soviet “Luna” missions on the lunar front already encountered similar material. So far, however, it has not been finally clarified whether the surface of the Earth’s satellite is similar in different regions.
The radar data from “Yutu-2” provide the first detailed look under the surface of the back of the moon, the scientists emphasize in “Science Advances”.
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The radar of the “Yutu-2” probe could at least look 40 meters deep into the impact point. Accordingly, under the top layer of finely ground material, also called regolith, there is another layer of large rocks and stones, also around twelve meters thick. In between there are further thin layers of finer material. This is followed by a region in which layers of coarser and finer materials alternate. The probe has not yet been able to determine the depth of the crater. Its lowest point must be deeper than 40 meters and cannot be detected in the radar images.
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Last May, Chinese scientists reported that rover “Yutu-2” may have encountered mantle rock. At that time, the robot discovered silicate minerals from the group of olivines and pyroxenes that have never been found on the moon before.
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