Scholarlink

<p>China’s Chang’e-6 (CE-6) mission successfully returned the first lunar samples from the South Pole–Aitken basin on the Moon’s farside. Determining the provenance and evolution of the samples will play a crucial role in guiding effective laboratory analyses. Here we conduct a comprehensive search for source impact craters of the CE-6 samples on global, regional and local scales, and systematically model the formation, migration, mixing and maturation of regolith in the landing region driven by continuous bombardment and solar wind irradiation. A catalogue of 1,674 major source craters with ejecta source depths of up to 3 km was established, which cumulatively delivered materials 53.4 ± 15.7 cm thick to the CE-6 landing site. The returned samples are estimated to comprise ~93.3% local basalts, 6.1% South Pole–Aitken basin materials that are likely to contain mantle components and 0.6% highland feldspathic materials from outside the South Pole–Aitken basin. Modelled elemental abundance depth profiles show that the exotic materials are primarily concentrated at depths of 2.5–3 m, with a portion within the sampling depth of 1 m. The estimated exposure time in the top 1 mm is <InlineEquation ID="IEq1"> <InlineMediaObject> <ImageObject Color="BlackWhite" FileRef="41550_2025_2525_Article_IEq1.gif" Format="GIF" Height="22" Rendition="HTML" Resolution="72" Type="Linedraw" Width="79" /> </InlineMediaObject> <EquationSource Format="TEX">\({2.1}_{-0.9}^{+1.1}\,{\rm{Myr}}\)</EquationSource> <EquationSource Format="MATHML"><math> <mrow> <msubsup> <mrow> <mn>2.1</mn> </mrow> <mrow> <mo>−</mo> <mn>0.9</mn> </mrow> <mrow> <mo>+</mo> <mn>1.1</mn> </mrow> </msubsup> <mspace width="0.25em" /> <mi mathvariant="normal">Myr</mi> </mrow> </math></EquationSource> </InlineEquation> for the surficial scooped samples and shorter for deeper drilled samples. These findings establish a crucial foundation for CE-6 sample analysis and interpretation, offering key insights into the provenance of exotic materials and the space weathering process on the Moon’s farside.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Provenance and evolution of lunar regolith at the Chang’e-6 sampling site

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年4月7日

查看全文
  • Mingwei Zhang,
  • Wenzhe Fa,
  • Bojun Jia

摘要

China’s Chang’e-6 (CE-6) mission successfully returned the first lunar samples from the South Pole–Aitken basin on the Moon’s farside. Determining the provenance and evolution of the samples will play a crucial role in guiding effective laboratory analyses. Here we conduct a comprehensive search for source impact craters of the CE-6 samples on global, regional and local scales, and systematically model the formation, migration, mixing and maturation of regolith in the landing region driven by continuous bombardment and solar wind irradiation. A catalogue of 1,674 major source craters with ejecta source depths of up to 3 km was established, which cumulatively delivered materials 53.4 ± 15.7 cm thick to the CE-6 landing site. The returned samples are estimated to comprise ~93.3% local basalts, 6.1% South Pole–Aitken basin materials that are likely to contain mantle components and 0.6% highland feldspathic materials from outside the South Pole–Aitken basin. Modelled elemental abundance depth profiles show that the exotic materials are primarily concentrated at depths of 2.5–3 m, with a portion within the sampling depth of 1 m. The estimated exposure time in the top 1 mm is \({2.1}_{-0.9}^{+1.1}\,{\rm{Myr}}\) 2.1 − 0.9 + 1.1 Myr for the surficial scooped samples and shorter for deeper drilled samples. These findings establish a crucial foundation for CE-6 sample analysis and interpretation, offering key insights into the provenance of exotic materials and the space weathering process on the Moon’s farside.